Jeremiah 8:8

How do ye say, we are wise,.... Which they were continually boasting of, though they were ignorant of the judgment of the Lord, and were more stupid than the stork, turtle, crane, and swallow: and the law of the Lord is with us?

How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

How do ye say, We are wise? q. d. These things considered, where is your wisdom, when you see the very fowls of the air are not so stupid as you are? he speaks either to princes and priests, or to the whole body of the people. The law of the Lord is with us: this may be understood either more general of all, or may have a more special eye to the priests, with whom it was intrusted, . They were wont to boast much of the law, as well as of the temple, ,23. In vain made he it: q.d. For any use they made of it, they had as good have been without it; God needed not to have given them a law, . The pen of the scribes is in vain; neither need it ever have been copied out, divulged, and conveyed down to them by the scribe, ; or the prevarications and collusions these lawyers used in the false interpretation of the law, wherein they sided with the false prophets, should be in vain. A scribe was a teacher, one well versed in the in the Scripture, or esteemed so.

Jeremiah 8:8 How do ye say, We [are] wise, and the law of the LORD [is] with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he [it]; the pen of the scribes [is] in vain.Ver. 8. How do ye say, We are wise?] If ye were so, ye would never say so. "Surely I am more brutish than any man," said holy Agur. This only I know, that I know nothing, said Socrates. Neither know I so much as this, that I know just nothing, said a third. How could these in the text say, "We are wise," when the fowls of the air outwitted them? Compare Job 35:11. The law of the Lord is with us.] Vox est Pharisaeorum. The voice is of the Pharisees. So the Jesuits to this day (as of old the Gnostics) will needs be held the only knowing men. The empire of learning belongeth to the Jesuits, say they; a Jesuit cannot be a heretic. Iungantur in unum, dies cum nocte, lux cum tenebris, &c., May they join into one, day with night, light with darkness &c, i.e., Let day and night be jumbled together, light and darkness, heat and cold, health and sickness, life and death; so may there be some likelihood that a Jesuit may be a heretic, saith one of them. The Church is the soul of the world, the clergy of the Church, and we of the clergy, saith another. Lo, certainly in vain made he it,] i.e., The law, for any good use that this people or their leaders put it to. See Hosea 8:12 Romans 2:17-25. Casaub. ex Apologista.

(8) How do ye say . . .?—The question is put to priests and prophets, who were the recognised expounders of the Law, but not to them only. The order of scribes, which became so dominant during the exile, was already rising into notice. Shaphan, to whom Hilkiah gave the re-found Book of the Law, belonged to it (2 Chronicles 34:15), and the discovery of that book would naturally give a fresh impetus to their work. They were boasting of their position as the recognised instructors of the people. Lo, certainly . . .—Better, Verily, lo! the lying pen of the scribes hath made it (i.e., the Law) as a lie. The pen was the iron stylus made for engraving on stone or metal. The meaning of the clause is clear. The sophistry of men was turning the truth of God into a lie, and emptying it of its noblest meaning. Already, as in other things, so here, in his protest against the teaching of the scribes, with their traditional and misleading casuistry, Jeremiah appears as foreshadowing the prophet of Nazareth (Matthew 5:20-48; Matthew 23:2-26).

Verse 8. The pen of the scribes is in vain.] The deceitful pen of the scribes. They have written falsely, though they had the truth before them. It is too bold an assertion to say that "the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;" they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such.

8. the law] The reply of the priests such as the two Pashhurs (Jeremiah 20:1, Jeremiah 21:1) and prophets such as Shemaiah (Jeremiah 29:24) was, We do know the Law and have it in writing. But, behold, the false pen … falsely] or (as mg.) hath made of it falsehood. Jeremiah has been thought by Du., Co. and others (not so Gi.) to refer here to the newly-discovered book supposed to be in a large degree identical with Deuteronomy as we now have it (2 Kings 22:8). We may indeed well believe that the prophet laid but little stress on the ritual portions of the law, there set forth (see Jeremiah 7:22 with notes), as compared with the rest of the Book. But with the moral tone of that Book he was in full sympathy, as is shewn by his frequent use of its words and phrases, and persistent enforcement of its general teaching. See on Jeremiah 11:1, etc. Thus it is far more likely that he here refers to the traditional directions, already committed to writing, which the priesthood claimed to possess for guidance in ritual. These had been perverted in some way to us unknown, so as to sanction iniquitous observances. This was “a peril specially likely to arise, when but few copies of ‘the law’ existed, and when the authority of the written law was not fully recognised,” Ryle, Canon of the O.T., p. 67. Cp. Jeremiah 2:8; Zephaniah 3:4; see also Deuteronomy 24:8 (“teach,” i.e. give directions for action); Haggai 2:11 ff. The Hebrew word for “law” means literally pointing out, direction. See further in C.B. Joel and Amos, pp. 230 f. scribes] a class of men who devoted themselves to the study and development of the law. See 2 Chronicles 34:13. This laid the foundation for the mass of Rabbinical exposition which belonged to later times.

The law of the Lord - The “Torah,” or written law, the possession of which made the priests and prophets so boastfully exclaim, “We are wise.” Lo, certainly ... - Rather, Verily, lo!

8. The pen of the scribes is in vain — The latter part of this verse should be translated, certainly the lying pen of the scribes hath made it a lie.