Jeremiah 9:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 9:10
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
up
אֶשָּׂ֧א'e.Sa'
H5375
to lift · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
weeping
בְכִ֣יve.Khi
H1065
a weeping · noun, common masculine singular absolute
wailing
וָנֶ֗הִיva.Ne.hi
H5092
an elegy · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
habitations
נְא֤וֹתne.'ot
H4999
a home · noun, common feminine plural construct
wilderness
מִדְבָּר֙mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · noun, common masculine singular absolute
lamentation
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
Jeremiah 12:4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed,…
Hosea 4:3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heav…
Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the gen…
Jeremiah 12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Ezekiel 14:15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the b…
Ezekiel 29:11 No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.
Ezekiel 33:28 For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none sh…
Isaiah 49:19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 9:1-11
The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that destruction was brought upon them, here, as elsewhere, speaks of both very feelingly: what he said of both came from the heart, and therefore one would have thought it would reach to the heart.
I. He abandons himself to sorrow in consideration of the calamitous condition of his people, which he sadly laments, a one that preferred Jerusalem before his chief joy and her grievances before his chief sorrows.
1. He laments the slaughter of the persons, the blood shed and the lives lost (Jer 9:1): "O that my head were waters, quite melted and dissolved with grief,…
Jeremiah breaks in upon Jehovah's threats of wrath with lamentation for his desolated country.
mountains--once cultivated and fruitful: the hillsides were cultivated in terraces between the rocks.
habitations of . . . wilderness--rather, "the pleasant herbage (literally, 'the choice parts' of any thing) of the pasture plain." The Hebrew for "wilderness" expresses not a barren desert, but an untilled plain, fit for pasture.
burned up--because no one waters them, the inhabitants being all gone.
none can pass through them--much less inhabit them.
fowl-- (Jer 4:25).
John Gill on Jeremiah 9:10
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,.... Because of the desolation of them; because no pasture upon them, nor flocks feeding there; or "concerning" them, as the Arabic version; or "upon" them (y), in order to cause the lamentation to be heard the further; but the former sense seems best, as appears by what follows. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read it as an exhortation to others, "take up a weeping": but they are the words of the prophet, declaring what he would do.
And for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation; for the cottages of the shepherds, erected for their convenience, to look after their flocks, feeding on the mountains, and in the valle…
(Ver. 10.) Over the mountains I will lift up weeping and lamentation, and over the beautiful paths of the deserted plains there will be mourning. For they are burned up because there is no man passing through, and they have not heard the voice of the possessor, from the bird of the sky to the livestock they migrate and depart. With the coming of the Babylonian army, and as it devastates everything, the solitude of the province is prophesied, that there will be lamentation on the mountains, weeping in the desert or on the paths of the wilderness, that everything will fail and burn up, and there will be no one who walks the earth, with everyone slain and nothing remaining that can breathe and live. From the word 'possidente' (possessing), seventy substances were transferred, which in Hebrew is called Macne (): and here substance is not taken in the sense of essence, but in the sense of power and wealth. And what it implies is this: They have withdrawn and gone away from the birds of the air to the cattle, which shows what we have often said, that the whole creation feels the anger of God, and not only the birds of the air, but also the fish of the water perish. According to the allegory, we understand weeping upon the mountains, and lamentation upon the beautiful wilderness, when the leaders of the Church sin and nothing of God's substance is found in her, nor is the voice of the Lord who possesses the Church heard through the holy and apostolic men; and from the birds of the air to the cattle, from those who can ascend to the heights to the irrational and simplest creatures who have withdrawn (or have withdrawn) from God's assembly.
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
Birds · Often remove from places suffering calamities — Often remove from places suffering calamities
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).
קִינָ֔הki.Nah
H7015
a dirge (as accompanied by beating the breasts or on in… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
up
נִצְּתוּ֙ni.tze.Tu
H3341
to burn or set on fire · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
none
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
pass
עֹבֵ֔ר'o.Ver
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
hear
שָׁמְע֖וּsha.me.'U
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
voice
ק֣וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
cattle
מִקְנֶ֑הmik.Neh
H4735
something bought · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fowl
מֵע֤וֹףme.'of
H5775
a bird (as covered with feathers · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
heavens
הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
beast
בְּהֵמָ֔הbe.he.Mah
H929
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fled
נָדְד֖וּna.de.Du
H5074
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
gone
הָלָֽכוּha.La.khu
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
John Calvin on Jeremiah 9:10
Jeremiah 9:10
10. For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
10. Super montes tollam (vel assumam) fletum et lamentationem, et super pascua (vel, loca amoena; alii vertunt, tuguria) deserti planctum; quia vastata sunt (alii vertunt, incensa;) ita non sit vir transiens, et non audiunt vocem pecudum; ab ave coelorum (hoc est, ab avibus) usque ad bestiam migrarunt, abierunt.
The Prophet had exhorted others to lament and to bewail. He now comes for…
The land laid waste, and the people scattered amongst the heathen. - Jer 9:9. "For the mountains I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lament; for they are burnt up so that no man passeth over them, neither hear they the voice of the flock; the fowls of the heavens and the cattle are fled, are gone. Jer 9:10. And I make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling of jackals; and the cities of Judah I make a desolation, without an inhabitant. Jer 9:11. Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? and to whom the mouth of Jahveh hath spoken, that he may declare it? Wherefore doth the land come to ruin, is it burnt up like the wilderness, that none passeth through? Jer…
It is unclear whether these words were uttered by the Lord or by Jeremiah. If the words belong to the Lord, they indicate that he pronounced judgment from a broken heart. If they come from Jeremiah, they show the depths of pain in his heart as he delivered the Lord’s decree. The prophet faced the difficult task of separating his patriotism and empathy for the people from his identity as the Lord’s messenger.
