Jeremiah 8:18

When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. WHEN I WOULD COMFORT MYSELF AGAINST SORROW, MY HEART IS FAINT IN ME - (Isaiah 22:4). The lamentation of the prophet for the impending calamity of his country. AGAINST SORROW - or, with respect to sorrow. Maurer translates, 'O my exhilaration as to sorrow' - i:e., 'O that exhilaration (comfort [ mabliygiytiy (H4010), from baalag (H1082), to comfort], akin to an Arabic root, to shine as the rising sun) would shine upon me as to my sorrow!' IN ME - within me....

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 they sought through their obstinacy to drive away every punishment. This could not indeed be referred to himself, or to those who were like him, as we know how fearful are God’s servants with regard to his wrath; for as the fear of God prevails

14-22 At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the Physician there, all-sufficient; so that the people may be healed, but will not. Thus men die unpardoned and unchanged, for they will not come to Christ to be saved....

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....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 8:1 Punishment will even overtake the sinners who have long since been deceased. JEREMIAH 8:1 THEY SHALL BRING OUT THE BONES. Not only shall many of the dead bodies remain unburied, but the sepulchers of those who have till now "lain in honor, each one in his house" (Isaiah 14:18), shall be violated. THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM meant are evidently those of the upper class, for the others were buried, with but little regard to the security of the corpses, in the valley of Kedron (2 Kings 23:6). According to some, the mot

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.''...

Jeremiah 8:1. _At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth._ This is an awful picture. Here is a nation that would worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars, instead of worshipping God. Here they are, and their bones lie exposed to the sun and moon and stars which they had worshipped, dead people before lifeless gods. This is all that idolatry produces for the ruined people wh

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The horrors of the invasion (Jeremiah 8:1) _ 2. Hardened hearts and retribution (Jeremiah 8:4) 3. Utter destruction threatened (Jeremiah 8:13) 4. The prophet's lamentation (Jeremiah 8:18) Jeremiah 8:1. These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of Chapter s is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even have digged out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people who had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars shoul

JEREMIAH 8:18 TO JEREMIAH 9:1. JEREMIAH'S SORROW OVER JUDAH'S SUFFERING. The prophet, in sorrowful sympathy with his people, hears in anticipation the cry of the exiles and Yahweh's answer. They reproach Him with His abandonment of Zion; He points to their idolatry, and introduction of foreign (strange) deities. The people lament (apparently in proverbial form) the disappointment of their hope of deliverance; it is as when the hope of harvest (April-June) has been destroyed, and the failure of the autumn ingathering (Jeremiah 8:20 _mg._) has removed the remaining expectation; they (emph.) have not been rescued from their distress (the reference in saved is to material prosperity, not to a spiritual change). The prophe

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