Jeremiah 4:18

18 "Your own ways and your actions have brought these things on yourselves. This is your wickedness, so bitter! It has reached your very heart."

Jeremiah 4:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 4:18

Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee,
&c.] The way in which they walked, which was an evil one; and the actions which they committed; their idolatries, backslidings, and rebellions, before spoken of in this and the preceding chapter, were the cause of this siege, and those calamities coming upon them; they had none to blame but themselves; it was their own sinful ways and works which brought this ruin and destruction on them: this is thy wickedness;
the fruit of thy wickedness; or, "this thy calamity"; that is, is owing to these things; so the word is rendered in ( Psalms 141:5 ) : because it is bitter;
not sin, as in ( Jeremiah 2:19 ) , but the punishment of it; the calamity before mentioned; which was hard and heavy, and grievous to be borne, and yet very just; it was by way of retaliation; "they had bitterly provoked the Lord", as the word may be rendered in the preceding verse; and now he sends them a bitter calamity, and a heavy judgment: because it reacheth unto thine heart;
into the midst of them, and utterly destroyed them. The two last clauses may be rendered, "though it is bitter, though it reacheth unto thine heart" F4; though it is such a sore distress, and such an utter destruction, yet it was to be ascribed to nothing else but their own sins and transgressions.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (egn yk rm yk) "quamvis amarum sit, quamvis pertigerit", Calvin.

Jeremiah 4:18 In-Context

16 "Report it to the nations, proclaim about Yerushalayim: '[Enemies] are coming from a distant country, watching and shouting their war cry against the cities of Y'hudah.'
17 Like guards in a field they surround her, because she has rebelled against me," says ADONAI.
18 "Your own ways and your actions have brought these things on yourselves. This is your wickedness, so bitter! It has reached your very heart."
19 My guts! My guts! I'm writhing in pain! My heart! It beats wildly - I can't stay still! - because I have heard the shofar sound; it's the call to war.
20 The news is disaster after disaster! All the land is ruined! My tents are suddenly destroyed, my tent curtains in an instant.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.