Jeremiah 8:9, commentary and pictures

The wise men are those who claim to be wise and to possess the law of the Lord. They have rejected the word of the Lord, turning their ears away from hearing it lest they be disturbed by its plainly specified requirements, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves to understand what the Lord says so that they may obey His voice. Because they have rejected the word of the Lord, they are ashamed and dismayed and taken, exposed and caught in their error, with their learning and claims bringing shame and dismay rather than honor. No true wisdom is left in them and their wisdom is made vain, for real wisdom cannot exist apart from receiving and obeying God's word. The chapter presents the people's condition as it is.

The verse describes perpetual backsliders who hold fast deceit and refuse to return, who do not speak aright and do not repent of wickedness, who rush on in their own course and do not know the judgment of the Lord. It exposes teachers who heal the hurt of God's people slightly by saying peace, peace when there is no peace, who are not ashamed of abominations and cannot blush, and who shall therefore fall among those who fall and be cast down in the time of visitation. The wise men were the scribes and teachers and rulers in Christ's time, when the Word of God was presented by Christ Himself, yet the law of the Lord in its true significance and with its divine authority was ignored and despised and rejected and declared to be no longer binding upon the human family.

What was true of them is no less true of the religious world today and describes the masses in this age and the condition of the world near the close of earth's history, where darkness has deepened in the earth, the same rejection of the word of the Lord continues, and all who follow that practice come under the condemnation of the heavenly universe. The verse is a direct word from the Lord calling sinners to amend their ways and doings and to stop trusting in lying words.