Jeremiah 8:18

18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

Jeremiah 8:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:18

When I would comfort myself against terror
Either naturally, by eating and drinking, the necessary and lawful means of refreshment; or spiritually, by reading the word of God, and looking over the promises in it: my heart is faint in me;
at the consideration of the calamities which were coming upon his people, and which were made known to him by a spirit of prophecy, of which he had no room to doubt. So the Targum takes them to be the words of the prophet, paraphrasing them,

``for them, saith the prophet, my heart grieves.''

Jeremiah 8:18 In-Context

16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.

17 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.

18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.