“I will make an end to them” [8:13]. The Holy One said: I will destroy everything on the earth, the best fruits, the wine and the figs, even when they have grown. I have given them commandments and they did not keep them.1Rashi, Jeremiah, 8:13.
“Why do we sit still?” [8:14]. Why are we sitting in the villages? Let us go to the strong fortified cities. If we remain silent there, it is because we must remain silent. We cannot speak against God, because we are guilty. We have committed sins. God has given us a bitter drink to drink because of this. Should we hope for peace and happiness and the peace does not come. From the city of Dan is heard the great shouting of the enemy’s horses. The earth trembled and they destroyed the earth and all the cities with the people who dwelled in them. Thus says the Lord: I will send the snakes to you and they will bite you and the magicians who used to force the snakes to leave with magic spells will not help.2Rashi, Jeremiah, 8:14.
“When in grief, I would seek comfort” [8:18]. He lamented and said: I would have wanted to strengthen myself to console myself, but my heart is in great pain.
“Hark, the outcry of my poor” [8:19]. He laments that Israel shouted out of fear of the nations who were distant. Israel thought, is there not someone in Zion who will help us? The Holy One responded: why should you rely on Me that I should protect you? You worshiped foreign gods; let them help you.
“The harvest is past” [8:20]. Israel said: the harvest of the grain has passed. That is to say, a person who hopes that the time to harvest grain and wheat should come. So too have we hoped that we should be helped by God from the enemies, but we see no help.3Radak, Jeremiah, 8:20.
“Because my people is shattered” [8:21]. The prophet said: my heart is broken because of the great troubles that Israel are having. I am blackened and unclean; desolation has seized me.
“Is there no balm in Gilead?” [8:22]. Is there no remedy from the apothecary from the city of Gilead, to heal Israel? Why are my people Israel not healed? Were there water in my head and would the water flow into my eyes that I should have with what to shed tears, to cry. I would dearly want to cry day and night, but I have no tears with which to cry. Were that I would live in the desert, that I should not see Israel in their troubles. I see that they are full of sins and falsehood. One gossips about the other one, for one to do evil things to the other. They do not recognize Me, God, and they give false judgments. They pursue slander and hypocrisy. Therefore, the Holy One said: I will make them good and make them pious, refine them like silver, refined through troubles from their enemies that they will have to suffer. They will become pious and I will accept them again. They should not think that they would be lost forever. They are called My people.
“Their tongue is a sharpened arrow” [9:7]. They slaughter and kill with their gossip. They speak peace with their mouths to their friends, but their heart is not in it. Therefore, the Holy One said: how can I restrain Myself, not to pay them for their sins. “Sharpened” also means that their tongue is stuck out.4Radak, Jeremiah, 9:7.
“For the mountains I take up weeping” [9:9]. The prophet said that he saw the destruction of the land and lamented. I will go on the mountains to lament and weep. There were many cattle and now everything has been devastated. One no longer hears the noise of the cattle and also not the cry of the birds. Where there was grain, there is no grain to be found. That is why the sound of birds is no longer found.
“I will turn Jerusalem into rubble” [9:10]. I have destroyed Jerusalem, like a mountain and a pile of stones that lie on top of each other. Snakes live under them. The same thing also happened to the other cities in the land of Judah.
“Who is so wise to understand this?” [9:11]. The prophet said that every intelligent person would understand what the Holy One is saying to the prophet. The prophet said: that is to say, he will think about what the prophet said about why the land was destroyed. God said: because Israel left the Torah and followed the desires of their hearts, to worship foreign gods that they learned from their fathers. Therefore, God said: listen, I will tell them to eat bitter gall and wormwood. I will disperse them among the nations that they do not know and will send the sword to destroy you.
“Thus said the Lord” [9:16]. Thus said God, the Lord. Summon and call those who know how to mourn with laments and mourning songs. Let them awaken us with songs of mourning in the hope that we should cry and shed tears from our eyes. A great lament, to have been destroyed and shamed.
“Hear, O women” [9:19]. The women should hear the words of God that they should lament. They should lament, since the women have very soft hearts. They cry quickly and will easily make all the people cry. Therefore, you women should teach your daughters that they should know how to cry and lament when the angel of death appears in our windows. He has come into our fortress to kill the children on the inside and the young men in the streets.
“Speak thus – says the Lord” [9:21]. The Holy One said to the prophet. Say to Israel in My name. The corpses of the people will fall like garbage in the field. Thus said God: the wise man should not boast with his wisdom and the warrior with his strength and the wealthy person with his wealth.
“But only in this should one glory, in his earnest devotion to Me, etc.” [9:23]. With this should he boast, he should think about Me with intelligence and should know that I am God and act with charity, justice, and lovingkindness on the earth. I do everything and desire all these. That is, I make the person smart, strong or wealthy.
The Ikkarim writes that the wise person should not boast about his wisdom. That is, when he wants to keep his wisdom for himself and does not want to share it with his friend. He should not boast, as the verse says here, “the wise man should not boast with his wisdom” [9:22]. That is to say, he should not boast when he wants to keep the wisdom hidden for himself. Similarly, with strength, when he wants to keep the strength for himself and not help his friend with his strength by protecting him from a thief who wants to rob him. That is to say, he points to a judge or head of the community that he can help his friend get justice or find a compromise. Nothing is stronger than justice, since with justice one can force him to pay taxes. Therefore, the verse here calls strength, justice. The third is that the person should not boast about wealth, that he wants to say that the wealth is his alone. That is to say, he does not want to do charitable acts with it. He says: how does the pauper deserve my money, that I should give him money that is mine alone? Therefore, the verse says here, “for I the Lord act with kindness, justice and equity” [9:23]. That is to say, the person should see how I lead with these three things, that I have more wisdom than the whole world and I do not keep it for Myself. I do lovingkindness with My wisdom and give it to the people on the earth. The second one that I have, strength, I give to the people on the earth. That is to say, I help each person from whom the thief wants to steal or rob, by doing justice with My strength and protect the people. The third is that I have wealth. I do not hide it, but give charity to the people on the earth. Therefore, the verse ends with the three words “kindness, justice, and equity” [9:23].5Albo, Joseph. Sefer Ikkarim (ed. I. Husik), III: 49. He says that when Israel in their exile will observe these three things properly, the Messiah will come. Amen.