Jeremiah 8:18

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 8:13-22

In these verses we have, I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people. He has borne long with them, but they are still more and more provoking, and therefore now their ruin is resolved on: I will surely consume them (Jer. 8:13), consuming I will consume them, not only surely, but utterly, consume them, will follow them with one judgment after another, till they are quite consumed; it is a consumption determined, Isa. 10:23. 1. They shall be quite stripped of all their comforts (Jer.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible 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, ... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 8:18

Verse 18 Interpreters explain differently the word מבלגיתי, mebelgiti. Some take מ, mem, in the sense of ב, beth; but others, with whom I agree, regard it as a servile, deriving the word from בלג, belag; and this letter is prefixed to it to shew that it is a noun. The ת, tau, also at the end, is a servile. (230) The Prophet then means, that he sought strength in his sorrow, but that his heart was weak He no doubt, I think, sets forth in this verse the perverse character of the people, — that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 8:18

When I would comfort myself , etc. The text is here extremely difficult, and if there is corruption anywhere it is in the opening of this verse. Ewald and Graf suppose an ellipsis, and render, "(Oh for) my enlivening [ i . e . an enlivening for me] in trouble!" Hitzig more naturally renders in the vocative, "My enlivener in trouble" which he supposes to be in apposition to my heart . Do Dieu wavers between this and the view that it is an address to his wife, "Quae marito solatio... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 8:18

Jeremiah 9:1 The prophet's grievous lament. I. ITS GRIEVOUSNESS . ( Jeremiah 9:18 , Jeremiah 9:21 , Jeremiah 9:1 .) Jeremiah 9:18 , "When I would comfort myself," etc. All hope dies down, is crushed beneath the overwhelming evidence of the hopelessness of his people's condition. Jeremiah 9:21 : he is as if wounded, his heart is clad in the garb of deepest woe, the black raiment of the mourner. Jeremiah 9:1 : he has exhausted his power of telling forth his deep grief,... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Jeremiah 8:18

Rather, “O my comfort in sorrow: my heart faints for me.” The word translated “comfort” is by some supposed to be corrupt. With these mournful ejaculations a new strophe begins, ending with Jeremiah 9:1, in which the prophet mourns over the miserable fate of his countrymen, among whom he had been earnestly laboring, but all in vain. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Jeremiah 8:18-19

Jeremiah 8:18-19. When I would comfort myself, &c. “When I would apply comfort to myself, my heart misgives me: I find great reason for my fears, and none for my hopes.” Blaney translates the verse, sorrow is upon me past my remedying; my heart within me is faint. They seem to be the words of the prophet, who had endeavoured to comfort himself in his trouble by acquiescing in the will of God; but the miseries coming on his countrymen continually occurring to his mind in all their... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:18-22

Mourning for Judah (8:18-9:22)The prophet is overcome with grief as he foresees the tragic end of the nation. The people wonder why God their King does not save them. God replies that it is because of their idolatry. They now realize that they can no longer expect his salvation (18-20). Nothing can heal Judah’s spiritual sickness now; the end has come. And nothing can heal the wounds of grief in Jeremiah’s heart as he sees his people suffer (21-22).Jeremiah is unable to express the extent of... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Jeremiah 8:18

I: i.e. the prophet again. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Jeremiah 8:18

"Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities?""The daughter of my people ..." (Jeremiah 8:19). Note the triple repetition of these pathetic words in these last verses of Jeremiah 8. These verses represent the people as asking why they must... read more

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