Jeremiah 8:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

How do ye say, We are wise? As if he had said, These things considered, where is your wisdom? you see the very fowls of the air are not so stupid as you are. He speaks not merely to the princes and priests, but to the whole body of the people. And the law of the Lord is with us They were wont to boast much of the law, as well as of the temple, Jeremiah 18:18; Romans 2:17-23. Lo, certainly in vain made he it For any use you make of it, you might as well have been without it. As if he had said, It is to no purpose for you to boast of your wisdom and skill in the knowledge of God's law, if you do not govern your lives by its directions; otherwise it was written and delivered to you in vain. The pen of the scribes is vain Neither need it ever have been copied out by the scribes. “The title of scribe, as applied to the skill of transcribing or interpreting the law, is first given,” in the Scriptures, “to Ezra, (Ezra 7:6,) who was not merely a copier of the law, but likewise an explainer of the difficulties of it, Nehemiah 8:1-13; and it is likely none made it their business to write copies of the law but those who were well versed in the study of it, which would best secure them from committing mistakes in their copies; hence the word, in the New Testament, signifies those who were learned in explaining the law, and answering the difficulties arising concerning the sense of it.” Lowth.