Jeremiah 4:18

18 "Your 1ways and your deeds Have brought these things to you. This is your evil. How 2bitter! How it has touched your heart!"

Jeremiah 4:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 4:18

Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee,
&c.] The way in which they walked, which was an evil one; and the actions which they committed; their idolatries, backslidings, and rebellions, before spoken of in this and the preceding chapter, were the cause of this siege, and those calamities coming upon them; they had none to blame but themselves; it was their own sinful ways and works which brought this ruin and destruction on them: this is thy wickedness;
the fruit of thy wickedness; or, "this thy calamity"; that is, is owing to these things; so the word is rendered in ( Psalms 141:5 ) : because it is bitter;
not sin, as in ( Jeremiah 2:19 ) , but the punishment of it; the calamity before mentioned; which was hard and heavy, and grievous to be borne, and yet very just; it was by way of retaliation; "they had bitterly provoked the Lord", as the word may be rendered in the preceding verse; and now he sends them a bitter calamity, and a heavy judgment: because it reacheth unto thine heart;
into the midst of them, and utterly destroyed them. The two last clauses may be rendered, "though it is bitter, though it reacheth unto thine heart" F4; though it is such a sore distress, and such an utter destruction, yet it was to be ascribed to nothing else but their own sins and transgressions.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (egn yk rm yk) "quamvis amarum sit, quamvis pertigerit", Calvin.

Jeremiah 4:18 In-Context

16 "Report it to the nations, now! Proclaim over Jerusalem, 'Besiegers come from a far country, And lift their voices against the cities of Judah.
17 'Like watchmen of a field they are against her round about, Because she has rebelled against Me,' declares the LORD .
18 "Your ways and your deeds Have brought these things to you. This is your evil. How bitter! How it has touched your heart!"
19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.
20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, My curtains in an instant.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Psalms 107:17; Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 2:17, 19
  • 2. Jeremiah 2:19

Footnotes 1

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