The previous chapter ended with a prophecy that the people of Judah will be slaughtered in the very place where they once slaughtered their children. Some great battle or catastrophe will result in so many corpses in the Valley of Slaughter that there will be no room left to bury the dead (7:30-34). Even the leaders of Israel will meet this awful fate. God shows no favoritism. At the start of Jeremiah 8, tombs are desecrated and the bones of all people, whether high or low, are lying exposed on the surface of the ground. This punishment is fitting. Since they didn’t cherish the bodies of their children, their own bodies will be treated like fertilizer. Since they worshiped sun, moon, and stars, their bones will lie exposed to these celestial bodies (v 1-3). Jeremiah is amazed that the people were unwilling to repent and thus avoid God’s judgment. It seemed like common sense. They had fallen in their sins; why not get back up? They had wandered away; why not come home? Sadly, they would not learn from their mistakes. Having turned away, they would not turn back. They were perpetual backsliders, simply unwilling to repent. Like warhorses wearing blinders, they galloped straight ahead into danger, mindlessly attracted to sin. Any migratory bird knows its way back home without having to be told to fly north or south. But God’s people were willfully ignorant of His paths, unaware of His directions for their lives (v 4-7). Not surprisingly, their spiritual leaders deserved part of the blame. The scribes of Jerusalem claimed to be wise, but mishandled the Bible. Driven by greed, they sought man’s approval rather than God’s. So they downplayed the reality of judgment, telling people what they wanted to hear. Instead of being rightly ashamed for promoting abominations, “they did not know how to blush.” As a result, they will be punished with everyone else. Though the people of Judah put all their hopes in this message of peace, when the northern army sweeps down upon them, the whole land will tremble and there will be no peace. Judgment will be inescapable, like poisonous snakes everywhere (v 8-17). It’s time to hand Jeremiah another handkerchief. The weeping prophet is filled with grief and sorrow as he contemplates the sin of his people and the divine judgment coming upon them. He is greatly troubled by their trouble, deeply wounded by their wounds. Without doctor or medicine, their illness will be terminal. “Is there no balm in Gilead?” he laments. Gilead was the land just east of the Jordan River, known for its healing balsams. The people of God were in need of a Great Physician, a Savior to heal them of their sins (v 18-22). For further meditation: