Jeremiah 4:30 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 4:30
And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
properly · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
do
תַּעֲשִׂ֗יta.'a.Si
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
clothest
תִלְבְּשִׁ֨יtil.be.Shi
H3847
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
crimson
שָׁנִ֜יsha.Ni
H8144
crimson · noun, common masculine singular absolute
deckest
תַעְדִּ֣יta'.Di
H5710
to advance · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
ornaments
עֲדִי'a.di-
H5716
finery · noun, common masculine singular construct
gold
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Kings 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
Lamentations 1:2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have deal…
Lamentations 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to reli…
Isaiah 10:3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will…
Ezekiel 16:36-41 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with…
Ezekiel 23:9-10 Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
Isaiah 20:6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the ki…
Jeremiah 13:21 What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee,…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 4:19–end
The prophet is here in an agony, and cries out like one upon the rack of pain with some acute distemper, or as a woman in travail. The expressions are very pathetic and moving, enough to melt a heart of stone into compassion: My bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; and yet well, and in health himself, and nothing ails him. Note, A good man, in such a bad world as this is, cannot but be a man of sorrows. My heart makes a noise in me, through the tumult of my spirits, and I cannot hold my peace. Note, The grievance and the grief sometimes may be such that the most prudent patient man cannot forbear complaining.
Now, what is the matter? What is it that puts the good man into such ag…
when thou art spoiled--rather, "thou, O destroyed one" [MAURER].
rentest . . . face with painting--Oriental women paint their eyes with stibium, or antimony, to make them look full and sparkling, the black margin causing the white of the eyes to appear the brighter by contrast (Kg2 9:30). He uses the term "distendest" in derision of their effort to make their eyes look large [MAURER]; or else, "rentest," that is, dost lacerate by puncturing the eyelid in order to make the antimony adhere [ROSENMULLER]. So the Jews use every artifice to secure the aid of Egypt against Babylon.
face--rather, thy eyes (Eze 23:40).
John Gill on Jeremiah 4:30
And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?.... Or, "O thou spoiled" (k), wasted, and undone creature, how wilt thou help thyself? by what means dost thou think thou canst be delivered? it suggests that her ruin was inevitable; that she could not be recovered from it by herself, or any other:
though thou clothest thyself with crimson; and so look like some rich and noble person; hoping thereby to find mercy, and to have quarter given and kindness shown:
though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold; as a person of high and princely dignity: or rather all this is to be understood of the manner of harlots, who dress rich and grand, in order to allure men; since it follows,
though thou r…
And if Plutus is blind, are not those women who are crazy about him and have an attraction with him blind too? Having, then, no limit to their lust, they push on to shamelessness. For the theater, and pageants, and many spectators, and strolling in the temples and loitering in the streets, that they may be seen conspicuously by all, are necessary to them. For those who glory in their looks, not in heart, dress to please others. For as the brand shows the slave, so do gaudy colors the adulteress. "For though you clothe yourself in scarlet, and deck yourself with ornaments of gold and anoint your eyes with paint, in vain is your beauty," says the Word by Jeremiah. Is it not monstrous that while horses, birds and the rest of the animals spring and bound from the grass and meadows, rejoicing in ornament that is their own, in mane and natural color and varied plumage, woman, as if inferior to the brute creation, should think herself so unlovely as to need foreign, bought and painted beauty?
(Verse 30.) But what will you do, O devastated one? The word 'devastated' in Hebrew is 'Sadud', which only Aquila has translated, others have translated it as 'miserable and wretched', by their own fault, for they have offended a merciful God. Finally, it follows: When you dress yourself in scarlet and adorn yourself with a golden necklace, and paint your eyes with antimony, you are in vain: your lovers have despised you, they will seek your soul. In the form of an adulterous woman speaks: when you have once offended God, and as if you had abandoned your Creator, you in vain seek ornaments. Your lovers, the demons, have despised you, and not the filth of debauchery, but they will seek the destruction of your soul. This same thing is to be understood spiritually against those who have lost conjugal affections and the modesty of true faith. 'If,' he says, 'you clothe yourself in scarlet, that is, you assume faith in the blood of Christ; if you adorn yourself with a golden necklace, that is, you have the meditation of spiritual senses and understanding; and if you paint your eyes with antimony, that is, you have the study of mysteries and the knowledge of God's secrets, you are in vain adorned. For these things you have also prepared for your lovers; and therefore a narrow bed cannot contain both, nor does God receive the ornaments by which you pleased your lovers before.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Colour — The subject of colours holds an important place in the Scriptures. White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to milk (Gen. 49:12), manna (Ex. 16:31), snow (Isa. 1:18),…
Dress — (1.) Materials used. The earliest and simplest an apron of fig-leaves sewed together (Gen. 3:7); then skins of animals (3:21). Elijah’s dress was probably the skin of a sheep (2 Kings 1:8). The…
Eye — (Heb. ‘ain, meaning “flowing”), applied (1) to a fountain, frequently; (2) to colour (Num. 11:7; R.V., “appearance,” marg. “eye”); (3) the face (Ex. 10:5, 15; Num. 22:5, 11), in Num. 14:14, “face to…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Paint — Jezebel “painted her face” (2 Kings 9:30); and the practice of painting the face and the eyes seems to have been common (Jer. 4:30; Ezek. 23:40). An allusion to this practice is found in the name of…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Cosmetics · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Eye, The · The Jewish women often painted — The Jewish women often painted
Gold · Was used for: Ornaments — Was used for: Ornaments
Painting · Around the eyes to enlarge their appearance — Around the eyes to enlarge their appearance
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
זָהָ֗ב
za.Hav
H2091
gold · noun, common masculine singular absolute
rentest
תִקְרְעִ֤יtik.re.'I
H7167
to rend · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
face
עֵינַ֔יִךְ'ei.Na.yikh
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
painting
בַפּוּךְ֙va.puKh
H6320
dye (specifically · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
vain
לַשָּׁ֖וְאla.Shav'
H7723
evil (as destructive) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
fair
תִּתְיַפִּ֑יtit.ya.Pi
H3302
properly · verb, hithpael imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
lovers
עֹגְבִ֖ים'o.ge.Vim
H5689
to breathe after · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
despise
מָאֲסוּma.'a.su-
H3988
to spurn · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
seek
יְבַקֵּֽשׁוּye.va.Ke.shu
H1245
to search out (by any method · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
life
נַפְשֵׁ֥ךְnaf.Shekh
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
John Calvin on Jeremiah 4:30
Jeremiah 4:30
30. And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
30. Et tu perdita (aut, vastata) quid facies? Quamvis to induas coccino, quamvis to ornes ornamentis auri (vel, monilibus aureis, ut alii vertunt,) quamvis distinguas fuco (aut, stybio, ut alii vertunt,) oculos tuos, frustra to decorabis (ad verbum, pulchrificabis;) abominabuntur to amatores tui, animam tuam quaerent.
The Prophet boldly ridicules the Jews, in order to cast down their pride and haughti…
In vain will Jerusalem attempt to turn away calamity by the wiles of a courtesan. In Jer 4:31 the daughter of Zion is addressed, i.e., the community dwelling around the citadel of Zion, or the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom, regarded as a female personality (as to בּת־ציּון, see on Isa 1:8). "Spoiled one" is in apposition not to the אתּי, but to the person in the verb; it is regarded as adverbial, and so is without inflexion: if thou art spoiled, like ערום, Job 24:7, Job 24:10; cf. Ew. 316, b. The following clauses introduced by כּי are not so connected with the question, what wilt thou do? as that כּי should mean that: what wilt thou do, devise to the end that thou may…
Strangely, some people acted as if nothing serious were happening. They tried to ignore the enemy, but their future was bleak. The enemy would kill them (22:20, 22; 2 Kgs 9:30; Isa 22:13; Lam 1:2, 19; Ezek 23:9-10, 22, 40-42).
Rashi on Jeremiah 4:30
that you wear crimson to beautify yourself and to gain clemency before the plunderer.
that you enlarge...with paint Heb. תקרעי. An expression of tearing, for the paint appears as widening the opening of the eye. So have I heard, and Menahem did not differentiate in the group of קרע.
paint Heb. בפוך, an expression of a blue paint.
lovers Heb. עגבים, those who jest with the women with various types of adultery. Comp. (Ezekiel 23:20) “She lusted (ותעגבה) for concubinage with them.”
they seek your life They seek to kill you.
