Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.
Parallel Translations
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Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.
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And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
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And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 8:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Revelation 9:6 In those days people will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
- Jeremiah 29:14 I will be found by you,” says Yahweh, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Yahweh. I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”
- Jeremiah 23:3 “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
- Jeremiah 23:8 but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will dwell in their own land.”
- Deuteronomy 30:4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.
- Job 7:15-16 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones. I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
- Deuteronomy 30:1 It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where Yahweh your God has driven you,
- Daniel 9:7 “Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
- Jonah 4:3 Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
- 1 Kings 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
- Job 3:20-22 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the bitter in soul, Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
- Jeremiah 20:14-18 Cursed is the day in which I was born. Don’t let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed. Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, “A boy is born to you,” making him very glad. Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn’t repent. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime; because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great. Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
- Jeremiah 29:28 because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long. Build houses, and dwell in them. Plant gardens, and eat their fruit?” ’ ”
- Jeremiah 32:36-37 Now therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, “It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:” “Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely.
- Jeremiah 40:12 then all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered very much wine and summer fruits.
- Revelation 6:16 They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He intimates in this verse, that all survivors would…
He intimates in this verse, that all survivors would be doubly miserable, as it would be better for them to die at once than to pine away in unceasing evils: for they who give another meaning to the words, seem not to understand the design of the Prophet. The import then of the passage is, — that however dreadful God’s judgment would be, when slaughters everywhere prevailed, and dead bodies were drawn out which had been previously buried, yet all this would be a slight punishment in comparison with what God would inflict on the rest, such as remained alive: and he also intimates that their life would be more miserable than death itself, yea, than ten deaths.
That those then who would escape death might not think that they gained any advantage, the Prophet says, Chosen shall be death before life by all the residue We hence learn how grievous was to be God’s vengeance; for nothing would be better or more desirable than to undergo death at once, as life would be nothing else but a continued languor and torment. Expected then will be death in all places in which there shall be survivors, where I shall drive them He mentions a reason for this twofold misery, — they would not be allowed to live in their own country, but would become aliens, — and they would find in their exile God’s hand against them, and as it were following them everywhere.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Because of the afflictions that they shall feel through…
Because of the afflictions that they shall feel through God’s judgments.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than…
Jer 8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 3. And death shall be chosen rather than life.] Vae victis. Alas O survivers, they being captives, and sorely oppressed, shall sing that doleful ditty,
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“ O terque quaterque beati
Queis ante ora patrum, Solymae sub moenibus altis
Contigit oppetere. ”
Oh how happy were they that perished during the siege, or in the surprisal of the city! Life indeed is sweet, as we say; and man is a life loving creature, said that heathen; but it may happen that life shall be a burden and a bitterness. How oft doth Job unwish it, and how fain would Elijah have been rid of it! So little cause is there that any good man should be either fond of life, or afraid of death.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And death shall be chosen rather than life; a…
And death shall be chosen rather than life; a description of the unexpressibleness of their misery, that notwithstanding all the barbarism of the Babylonians exercised both upon the bring and the dead, yet a small matter in comparison of what the living would feel, of the greatness of which misery there was a double cause; not only their being led into captivity, but God’s displeasure following them, even in their banishment, being sorely oppressed; one of those threatenings Lev 26:36,39; see Job 3:20,21; Rev 9:6. Which remain in all the places whither I have driven them; some dispersed among the mountains and hiding-places of Judea, others in the desert of Moab and Idumea, whither they fled for fear of the Chaldeans, and all other places where God would scatter them; an hypallage.
The Lord of hosts, he that hath all the creatures as an army at his command, can do this against those with whom he is displeased.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And death shall be chosen rather than life,.... By…
And death shall be chosen rather than life,.... By them that should be alive in those times, who would be carried captive into other lands, and be used very hardly, and suffer greatly, by the nations among whom they should dwell; see Rev 9:6. The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, make this to be a reason of the former, reading the words thus, "because they have chosen death rather than life"; see Deu 30:19, but the other sense is best, which is confirmed by what follows:
by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family; the nation of the Jews, become very corrupt and degenerate; so the people of Israel are called the whole family of Israel, Amo 3:1, now it is foretold, that those which remained of that people, who died not by famine, or were not slain by the sword, yet should be in such a miserable condition, as that death would be more eligible to them than life:
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even which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts: for, though they were carried captive by men, yet the thing was of the Lord, and a just punishment upon them for their sins.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than…
Jer 8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than life — Not through a lively and well-grounded hope of happiness in another life, but through an utter despair of any ease in this life. It denotes the extremity of misery, when men have no comfort left wherewith to alleviate their calamities, or render their lives tolerable. This appears by the next words to be spoken chiefly of the miseries which those should suffer who should survive the siege, and either flee or be carried captive into divers countries.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain This evil family - The whole Jewish race.
This evil family - The whole Jewish race.
Which remain - The words are omitted by the Septuagint and Syriac versions.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The survivors shall be still worse off than the…
The survivors shall be still worse off than the dead (Job 3:21-22; Rev 9:6).
which remain in all the places--"in all places of them that remain, whither I . . . that is, in all places whither I have driven them that remain [MAURER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Death shall be chosen — The fate of…
3. Death shall be chosen — The fate of the survivors is most pitiable of all, for they prefer death but do not find it.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. The thoughts correspond closely with Lev_26:36 ff.; Deu_28:65…
3. The thoughts correspond closely with Lev_26:36 ff.; Deu_28:65 ff.
family] See on Jer_3:14.
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which remain] repeated in MT. by the error of a copyist.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) The residue of them that remain.—Once more the…
(3) The residue of them that remain.—Once more the emphasis of re-iteration, “the remnant of a remnant.” The “evil family” is the whole house of Israel, but the words contemplate specially the exile of Judah and Benjamin, rather than that of the ten tribes.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Which remain. The words are certainly to be omitted…
Which remain. The words are certainly to be omitted in the second place where they occur. In the Hebrew they stand after in all the places, and the word for "places" is feminine, whereas the participle, "the remaining," is masculine. The Septuagint and Peshito have nothing corresponding. There is a clerical error in the Hebrew.
A pitiable condition: death preferable to life.
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I REMEMBER MAN"S NATURAL DREAD OF DEATH. The very force of the prophet"s expression here lies in this, that it contradicts the habitual feelings of the human breast. The natural preference is to choose life rather than death; nay, it can hardly be called preference at all. There is an instinctive prompting to ward off everything that may be fatal. Whatever the drawbacks and pains of life may be, life is chosen rather than death. In most instances the suicide is held not responsible for the state of his mind at the time. We must all die indeed; yet death is so alien to every predominating feeling of the mind when in health and prosperous circumstances, that even when death comes near others, it is viewed as if it had little or nothing to do with us. And so when Jeremiah"s word came to these people in Jerusalem, they, at least the young and the strong among them, would receive it very incredulously. That things should ever become so bad as to make death desirable would seem to them to show that the threatener of such a doom was overdoing his warnings.
II LIFE MAY BECOME SO FULL OF PAIN AND MISERY THAT THIS NATURAL DREAD MAY BE REVERSED. When the blow was struck and Jerusalem fell into the hands of the hosts from Babylon, thousands would be thankful that, amid so much destruction, their lives were spared. To lose possessions and go into exile would seem a light price to pay for the preservation of life. But with the increased experience of exile itself its dreadfulness became manifest. How could it be otherwise? The captivity and exile were not of an ordinary nation, but of one whose God was Jehovah. These people had been in the enjoyment of peculiar privileges and satisfactions, which they had come to accept as a matter of course; and when they lost them, they would then discern, if never before, something of their true value. It was out of a land of promise, a laud reserved for the people of God, that they had been cast, and no lapse of time could content them to be as other nations. It is just because man has within him such capabilities for enjoying life that he can be driven to the other extreme of desiring death. Life could not be so blessed as Christ holds out the hope of its being, unless there were also the possibility of its being correspondingly wretched.
III It is thus suggested that we should aim at reaching a state of mind such that EITHER LIFE OR DEATH SHOULD BE EQUALLY ACCEPTABLE. To prefer life to death is a natural feeling, but certainly not the feeling which a believer in God and Jesus should have. And to prefer death to life is the feeling which comes after a time of struggling, weariness, pain, and disappointment; but what darkness of the mind does this not prove] what inability to profit by the light which shines in Christ! The Christian medium lies between the two extremes. Not to wish to live, nor to wish to die, but to be in Christ"s hands, so that as long as we are living there may be an availing of every opportunity of service, and when we die a fresh proof that faith in the Savior who also died, but rose again, is no deluding vanity. It is one of the glorious aspects of Christ"s salvation that he can save men from crying out for death rather than life, just because he can lift them into an experience of joy and peace which overbear the sense of temporal pain and loss. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.