Yirmeyah 8:18

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my lev is faint within me.

Yirmeyah 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.''

Yirmeyah 8:18 In-Context

16 The snorting of his [the foe from the north] susim (horses) was heard from Dan; kol ha’aretz trembled at the sound of the neighing of his stallions; for they are come, and have devoured eretz, and all that is in it; the Ir (city, i.e., the city of Dan in the north of Israel), and those that dwell therein.

17 For, hinei, I will send nachashim, tzifonim (vipers), among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith Hashem.

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my lev is faint within me.

19 Hinei, the voice of the cry of the Bat Ami from eretz markhakim (a land of places far away): is Hashem not in Tziyon? Is her Melech not in her? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their pesilim (idols), and with alien vanities (futile foreign g-ds)?

20 The katzir (harvest) is past, kayitz (summer) is ended, and loh noshanu (we are not saved [from coming judgment and punishment]).