Jeremiah 9:20

20 Women, hear the LORD's message. Listen to what he's saying. Teach your daughters how to sob over the dead. Teach one another a song of sadness.

Jeremiah 9:20 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:20

Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women
Not the mourning women, but others who had lost their husbands and their children, and had just reason for real mourning; and therefore they are called upon to it, not only because they were more tenderhearted than men, as Kimchi observes; or because they were more attentive to the hearing of the word of God than men; but because of the paucity of men, such numbers being slain in the siege, and by the sword; and of the loss the women had sustained, see ( Jeremiah 9:22 ) : and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
by his prophets; so the Targum,

``let your ear hearken to the words of his prophets:''

and teach your daughters wailing.
The Arabic version, "a mournful song"; but not the daughters of the mourning women are meant; but the real daughters of those who had lost their husbands or children; since it follows: and everyone her neighbour lamentation;
signifying that the mortality among them would be very universal, not a family escaping; which is described in the next verses. This wailing and lamentation was made by responses, according to the Jews; for they say ^F4,

``what is lamentation? when one speaks, and all the rest answer after her, as it is written in ( Jeremiah 9:20 ) .''

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Misn. Moed Katon, c. 3. sect. 9.

Jeremiah 9:20 In-Context

18 Let them come quickly and sob over us. Let them cry until tears flow from our eyes. Let them sob until water pours out of our eyes.

19 People are heard sobbing in Zion. They are saying, "We are destroyed! We are filled with shame! We must leave our land. Our houses have been torn down."

20 Women, hear the LORD's message. Listen to what he's saying. Teach your daughters how to sob over the dead. Teach one another a song of sadness.

21 Death has climbed in through our windows. It has entered our forts. It has removed the children from the streets. It has taken the young people out of the market places.

22 Say, "The LORD announces, " 'The dead bodies of men will be like trash lying in the open fields. They will lie there like grain that is cut down at harvest time. No one will gather them up.' "