And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.
Jeremiah threatens them with something more grievous than death itself, — that God would impress the marks of his wrath even on their dead bodies. It is indeed true what a heathen poet says, “That the loss of a grave is not great,” (Virgil, aeneid;) but we must on the other hand remember that burying has been held as a sacred custom in all ages...
Here is, I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had been a joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a lamentation on high places (Jer 7:29), the high places where they had served their idols; there must they now bemoan their misery.
Commenting on Jeremiah 7:29-34
And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth,.... That is, those which remain unburied, for which there will be found no place to bury them in; all places, particularly Tophet, being so full of dead bodies; not to have a burial, which is here threatened, was accounted a great judgment: and...