Jeremiah 4:19 - Meaning and Application

The prophet is in agony here. He cries out like a person in severe pain, or like a woman in labor. His words are so moving that they could melt a hard heart into pity: “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart.” Yet he himself is safe and well, with nothing physically wrong. A good man, living in such a bad world, cannot help being a man of sorrows.

“My heart makes a noise in me,” he says, because his spirit is in turmoil, and he cannot stay silent. Sometimes the trouble and grief are so great that even the most patient person cannot keep from complaining. But what is the cause of this deep distress? It is not personal suffering or trouble in his own family. He grieves for the public condition, for his people’s case.

They are very sinful and will not change. These are God’s own words, and the prophet uses them to describe the people: “My people are foolish” (Jeremiah 4:22). God still calls them his people, even though they are foolish. They have turned away from him, but he has not cast them off (Romans 11:1). They are his people because he once made covenant with them, and because he still keeps mercy for them. They are foolish because they do not know God. That is true folly, especially for people who belong to him, have many means of knowing him, and still do not know him.

They are stupid and senseless, without understanding. They cannot tell truth from lies, or good from evil. They cannot discern God’s mind in his word or in his providence. They do not know what truly serves their own good. They are wise when it comes to doing evil. They know how to plot harm against the peace of the land, how to satisfy their desires, and how to hide and excuse their sins. But when it comes to doing good, they have no skill, no thought, and no care. They do not know how to use God’s ordinances or his providences well, or how to work for the good of their country. Our character should be the opposite: wise toward what is good, and innocent about evil (Romans 16:19).

They are also miserable, and no one can help them. The prophet says, “Because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, and seen the banner” (Jeremiah 4:19, 21). He does not say, “O my ear,” but “O my soul,” because this was still future. He saw it by the Spirit of prophecy, and his soul received the warning from God. He was as sure of it, and as deeply affected by it, as if he had heard it with his own ears.

He says this to show that, though he foretold the disaster, he did not desire it. It would be a painful day for him too. We should tremble at the misery sinners bring on themselves, even if we trust by grace that we are delivered from coming wrath. He also says it to awaken them to holy fear, so they may turn from sin in time and escape judgment by true repentance. Those who want to affect others with God’s word must first show that it affects them.

The destruction he sees is terrible. It comes quickly and suddenly upon Judah and Jerusalem. It falls on them before they know it, and comes so fast that they have no time to catch their breath. They have no time to think, much less to recover their strength. “Destruction upon destruction” is cried out (Jeremiah 4:20), one disaster after another, like Job’s messengers arriving one after another. Josiah’s death breaks the floodgates open. Within three months, his son and successor Jehoahaz is deposed by the king of Egypt. Within two or three years, Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem and takes it, and after that he keeps invading Judah through the reigns of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, until about nineteen years later he finishes their ruin by destroying Jerusalem. Yet their tents are spoiled in a moment, and their curtains are taken away at once. The cities may hold out for a time, but the countryside is laid waste right away. The shepherds and others who lived in tents are plundered immediately. The Rechabites, who lived in tents, went to Jerusalem as soon as the Chaldean army came into the land (Jeremiah 35:11). The villagers soon stopped living there, and the plain people in tents were the first to be made prey.

This awful war went on for a long time, and it spread through the center of the land, not just the borders. The people were stubborn and would not submit to the king of Babylon. They kept taking chances to rebel, and that only prolonged their misery. They might as well have yielded at first as at last. This is why the prophet asks, “How long shall I see the banner? Shall the sword devour forever?” (Jeremiah 4:21). Good people do not delight in war, because they do not know how to profit from trouble. They are for peace (Psalm 120:7), and they gladly pray, “Give peace in our time, O Lord.” “O sword of the Lord,” they say, “when will you be quiet?”

The desolation in the land is complete and sweeping. “The whole land is destroyed” (Jeremiah 4:20). It began that way, and in the end it became a complete ruin. The destruction was so great that it was almost like the land itself was being undone. Not only the buildings, but even the foundations were thrown into confusion. In his vision, the prophet saw how wide and deep this ruin would be, and he describes it vividly. One would think this should have shaken people out of their sin, since they lived in a land headed for such destruction, a ruin that could still have been avoided by repentance.

“The earth is without form and void” (Jeremiah 4:23), like Genesis 1:2. The land of Judah, in effect, becomes a chaos, a waste, stripped of beauty and emptied of wealth. Compared with what it had been, everything is out of place and out of order. The earth will be brought to an even worse state at the end of time, when it and everything in it will be burned up.

The heavens are without light too, just as the earth is without fruit. This points back to the darkness over the deep in Genesis 1:2, and shows God’s displeasure against them, as the darkening of the sun did at our Savior’s death.

It was not only the earth that failed them, but heaven also seemed to turn against them. Along with their trouble came darkness, because they could not see any way through it. The smoke from the houses and cities the enemy burned, and the dust raised by the marching army, could even block out the sun so that the heavens gave no light.

This can also be taken in a figurative sense. The earth, meaning the common people, was poor and in confusion. The heavens, meaning the princes and rulers, had no light, no wisdom of their own, and gave no comfort or guidance to the people. Compare (Matthew 24:29).

The mountains trembled, and the hills moved lightly (Jeremiah 4:24). God’s opposition to his people was so terrifying that it seemed the very mountains skipped like rams and the small hills like lambs, as they had once done in praise of God (Psalm 114:4). The everlasting mountains seemed to be scattered (Habakkuk 3:6). Even the mountains where they had worshiped idols, and the hills where they had looked for help, trembled as if they knew the people’s guilt. The highest and strongest among them, those with the firmest resolve, shook at the coming of the Babylonian army. The hills moved lightly, as if they were relieved of the burden of a sinful nation (Isaiah 1:24).

Not only the earth, but the air too was emptied and left without people (Jeremiah 4:25). The prophet saw cities and lands that had once been crowded, and there was no one to be seen. Everyone had been killed, fled, or taken captive. Sin brings this kind of ruin and emptiness. Even the birds of the sky, which once flew and sang in the branches, had gone away and were no longer seen or heard. Judah had become like the plain of Sodom, where, as they say, no bird flies (Deuteronomy 29:23). The enemy would make such devastation that they would not even leave birds alive in the land.

Both the ground and the houses would be laid waste (Jeremiah 4:26). The fertile land would become a wilderness, left untended by the people who should have worked it, and then quickly overgrown with thorns and briers, or trampled down by the enemy army. The cities, with their gates and walls, would be broken down and leveled. Those who look only at human causes would blame the invading army’s strategy and violence. But the prophet looks to the highest cause and says this happened because of the Lord’s presence, that is, because of the anger shown in his face, and by his fierce anger. Even angry people cannot truly harm us unless God is angry with us. If our ways please him, all is well.

The meaning of all this is that the nation will be completely ruined, and every part of it will share in the destruction. Neither town nor country will escape. The whole land will be desolate, both farmland and pasture, whether open or enclosed, and all of it will be laid waste (Jeremiah 4:27). The conquerors will need all of it. The people will not escape either, for the whole city will flee, and all its inhabitants will leave together out of fear of the horsemen and bowmen (Jeremiah 4:29). Rather than stay exposed to their fury, they will hide in thickets, where they may be torn by briers or even attacked by wild beasts. They will climb the rocks, where the shelter will be hard and cold, and the cliffs dangerous.

We should not become too attached to our houses and cities, because a time may come when rocks and thickets seem better and are chosen instead. This will be the common condition, for every city will be abandoned, and no one will dare live there. Government and trade will stop, and all civil life and public order will be broken up. It is a bleak picture of the coming destruction. Yet in the middle of these warnings comes one comforting word: “Yet I will not make a full end” (Jeremiah 4:27). It will not be a total destruction, because God will keep a remnant for himself, hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger. It will not be a final destruction, because Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the land inhabited again. This promise is placed in the middle of the threats for the comfort of those who tremble at God’s word. It also shows how changeable God’s providence is: as he brings down, so he raises up again. Every end of our comforts is not a full end, though we may feel that it is. It also shows the unchanging nature of God’s covenant, which stands so firmly that, though he may discipline his people severely, he will not reject them (Jeremiah 30:11).

Their case was helpless and beyond remedy. God would not help them, and he says so plainly (Jeremiah 4:28). If the Lord does not help them, who can? That is what makes their condition so sad. “For this the earth mourns, and the heavens above are black,” because God has spoken it. He has given the word that will not be taken back. He has planned it, and it is a destruction that has been determined, so he will not change his mind or turn back from it. They would not turn back from their sins (Jeremiah 2:25), so God will not turn back from his judgments.

They also could not help themselves (Jeremiah 4:30, Jeremiah 4:31). When the disaster was still far off, they likely comforted themselves with hopes that, even if God did not appear for them as he had for Hezekiah against the Assyrian army, they could still find some way to protect themselves and check the enemy’s power. But the prophet tells them that when the crisis actually comes, they will be at a loss. “When you are ruined, what will you do? What path will you take?” He tells them to think about it now.

He also says that their allies, on whom they depended for help, will despise them. He had often compared Jerusalem’s sin to adultery, not only her idolatry, but also her trust in created powers, especially nearby nations. Here he compares her to a prostitute left by all the men who once courted her. She tries hard to keep their favor. She does all she can to look important among the nations and to seem like a useful ally. She flatters them through her messengers as much as possible, hoping to persuade them to stand by her in her distress. She puts on crimson clothing, as if she were rich, and ornaments of gold, as if her treasuries were still as full as ever. She paints her face and uses whatever means she can to hide her distress, to make her losses look smaller, and to put the best face she can on her troubles.

But this kind of beautifying, though it may make the face look better for a while, really hurts it. Too much paint ruins the skin, cracks it, and leaves it rough. In the same way, a case that false appearances have made seem better than it really is will look much worse when the truth comes out. In the end, all the trying to make yourself look fair will be useless. Your neighbors can already see how low you have fallen. The Chaldeans will strip off your crimson clothing and ornaments, and then even your allies will not only look down on you and refuse to help, but will join those who seek your life so they can share in the plunder of such a rich country.

There may be a reference here to Jezebel, the wicked queen who tried to face her doom by making herself look fine, but it did her no good (2 Kings 9:30, 2 Kings 9:33). See how people turn out when we trust them too much. They can be very false. Instead of saving a life, they may seek it. They often change so quickly that they will do us harm sooner than help us. And see how pointless it is for people who have deformed themselves in God’s eyes by sin to think they can make themselves look good in the eyes of the world by outward tricks.

Second, they will be left in deep despair. Their troubles will be like the pains of a woman in labor, pains she cannot escape. “I have heard the voice of the daughter of Zion,” her groans sounding over the Chaldean army’s shouts of victory, which he heard before (Jeremiah 4:15). It is like the cry of a woman in labor, whose pain is intense, and which comes as part of both the curse and the hardship of sin (Genesis 3:16). This is especially true of a woman giving birth to her first child, since she has never known such pain before and is more frightened by it.

Troubles are hardest for those who are not used to them. Zion, in this distress, has no neighbors to pity her, so she laments herself, drawing deep sighs, which is what the word means, and she spreads out her hands, either in grief or reaching for help. Her cry is, “Woe is me now!” Now that the sentence has gone out against her and cannot be called back, “my soul is weary because of murderers.” The Chaldean soldiers killed all who resisted them, so the whole land was full of murder. Zion was tired of hearing tragic reports from every part of the country and cried out, “Woe is me!” It would be well if these sufferings reminded them of their sins, and the murders done to them of the murders they had committed. God was now calling to account the innocent blood shed in Jerusalem, blood the Lord would not pardon (2 Kings 24:4). As sin will eventually find the sinner, so sorrow will, sooner or later, find the one who feels safe.