The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 26 verses in Christian Bibles, but 25 verses in the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew manuscripts and in the JPS Version, where the verses Jeremiah 8:23 + Jeremiah 9:1-25 are numbered as Jeremiah 9:1-26 in Christian Bibles. This article generally follows the common numbering in Christian English Bible versions, with notes to the numbering in Hebrew Bible versions.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).[1] Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e., 4QJera (4Q70; 225-175 BCE[2][3]) with extant verses 1‑3, 8‑16 [Hebrew: 8:23; 9:1-2, 7-15],[4] 4QJerb (4Q71; mid 2nd century BCE[5]) with extant verses 23‑24, 26 [Hebrew: 22-23, 25],[6] and 4QJerc (4Q72; 1st century BC)[7] with extant verses 1‑6 [Hebrew: 8:23; 9:1-5] (similar to Masoretic Text).[8][6][9]
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[11] Jeremiah 9 is a part of the Fourth prophecy (Jeremiah 7-10) in the section of Prophecies of Destruction (Jeremiah 1-25). As mentioned in the "Text" section, verses 8:23 + 9:1-25 in the Hebrew Bible below are numbered as 9:1-26 in Christian Bibles. {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
"Behold, the days are coming": a typical phrase in Jeremiah's prophecy.[14]
Verse 26
"Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness.
For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart."[15]
"Uncircumcised in the heart": denoting "the physical marks of religious devotion ... without an obedient will."[14]Circumcision as a sign of God's covenant with Abraham was meaningless without a faithful heart to God; God would ignore it when it was just "an outward symbol" (Deuteronomy 10:12–22).[16]
^"The Evolution of a Theory of the Local Texts" in Cross, F.M.; Talmon, S. (eds) (1975) Qumran and the History of Biblical Text (Cambridge, MA - London). p.308 n. 8
^Tov, Emanuel (1989). "The Jeremiah Scrolls from Qumran". Revue de Qumrân. 14 (2 (54)). Editions Gabalda: 189–206. ISSN0035-1725. JSTOR24608791.
^ abThe New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. p. 1092-1094 Hebrew Bible. ISBN978-0195288810