Bible Strands
Jeremiah 8:1
“At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD declares through Jeremiah that at a specific future moment, the bones of Judah’s kings, officials, priests, prophets, and citizens will be exhumed from Jerusalem. This announcement addresses the covenant community during a period of impending national collapse.
The words — The phrase בָּ/עֵ֣ת (ba./'Et) combined with הַ/הִ֣יא (ha./Hi') literally renders "at the/ that time," pinpointing a fixed eschatological moment. The verb יוֹצִ֣יאוּ (ve.yo.tzi.'u) means "people will bring out," stressing the forced, public extraction of the dead.
The thread — This pattern of exposed remains recurs in Ezekiel 6:5, where God scatters Israelite bones before idols, and aligns with the altar judgment in 1 Kings 13:2 and Josiah’s tomb desecration in 2 Kings 23:16. These passages collectively trace a biblical theme of divine reversal where burial honor is stripped as judgment.
Why it lands — The text establishes that covenant rebellion results in the total loss of sacred rest and public dignity. It requires readers to acknowledge that idolatry forfeits all divine protection and leaves the dead to the ground.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 6:5 I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.
- 1 Kings 13:2 And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
- 2 Kings 23:16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.
- 2 Kings 23:20 On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
- 2 Chronicles 34:4 Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
- Jeremiah 7:32 So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.
- Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.
- Amos 2:1 This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Moab, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he burned to lime the bones of Edom’s king.