1. Jérémie 9:21 (NEG79)
  2. Explication du texte

How has death entered the windows and palaces?

Jérémie 9:21 (NEG79)

21 Car la mort est montée par nos fenêtres, Elle a pénétré dans nos palais; Elle extermine les enfants dans la rue, Les jeunes gens sur les places.

Death is pictured here as a relentless individual that is able to find its way to people. Their doors may be closed, but death will find its way through their windows. It has even entered their palaces, indicating either that that even the most secure locations in the nation are not safe, or that death comes to both the great and the small, or both of the above. It even comes to children and young men. 

The personification of death in this way is more typical of Canaanite texts that speak of Mot as the god of death. The Old Testament does not give death a personality.1 Death is maybe spoken of in this way here because one of the main reasons the Lord’s judgment has come to Judah is because of her worship of the Canaanite gods.