Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 9:12-22
Two things the prophet designs, in these verses, with reference to the approaching destruction of Judah and Jerusalem: - 1. To convince people of the justice of God in it, that they had by sin brought it upon themselves and that therefore they had no reason to quarrel with God, who did them no wrong at all, but a great deal of reason to fall out with their sins, which did them all this mischief. 2. To affect people with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, and the miserable effects of it, that by a terrible prospect of it they might be awakened to repentance and reformation, which was the only way to prevent it, or, at least, mitigate their own share in it. This being designed,
I…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 9:18
(Jer 14:17).
John Gill on Jeremiah 9:18
And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us,.... Deliver out a mournful song, as the Arabic version; setting forth their miseries and distresses, and affecting their minds with them. The prophet puts himself among the people, as being a party concealed in their sufferings, and sympathizing with them, as well as to show the certainty of then and how soon they would be involved in them:
that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters; or balls of the eye, as the Targum and Kimchi; these hyperbolical expressions are used to express the greatness of the calamity, and that no mourning was equal to it; see Jeremiah 9:1.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 9:17-18
Jeremiah 9:17-18
17. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
17. Sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Attendite et votate lamentatrices, ut veniant, et ad peritas mittite ut veniant:
18. And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
18. Et festinent et tollant super nos luctum, et descendant oculi nostri in lachrymas, (alii vertunt, descendant cum lachrymis, vel, emittant lachrymas,) et palpebrae nostrae defluant in aquas.
In this passage, as in many others, the Prophet endeavors by a striking representation…
