Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 4:8
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Is not turned … – As long as their sins are unrepented of, so long must their punishment continue.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Lament and howl] heililu. The aboriginal Irish had a funeral song called the Caoinian, still continued among their descendants, one part of which is termed the ulaloo: this is sung responsively or alternately, and is accompanied with a full chorus of sighs and groans. It has been thought that Ireland was originally peopled by the Phoenicians: if so, this will account for the similarity of many words and customs among both these people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Gird you with sackcloth; the usual habit of mourners, especially in those days, Isa 22:12; Jer 6:26; it is a calling upon them to repent.
Lament and howl: probably these expressions do import the several ways that men have to set forth their bitter complaints and sorrows of the mind, both by the gestures of the body, Jer 2:37; Luk 18:13, and expressions of the tongue, Psa 32:3; Isa 59:11.
Is not turned back from us; neither will it, until it have accomplished its ends, Jer 30:24.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Nothing is left to the Jewsbut to bewail their desperate condition.
anger . . . not turned back(Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17;Isa 9:21).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl,…. That is, because of this destruction threatened, which was so near at hand, and so sure and certain:
for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it “from you” and some render it “from it” u; from his purpose and design to destroy the Jews. Jarchi interprets this of Josiah, and his times, who, though he turned to the Lord with all his heart, yet the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his wrath and anger against Judah, 2Ki 23:25.
u “ab illo”, i.e. “ab illo proposito”, Cocceius; “ab eo”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
For this calamity the people was to mourn deeply. For the description of the mourning, cf. Joe 1:13; Mic 1:8. For the wrath of the Lord has not turned from us, as in blind self-delusion ye imagine, Jer 2:35. The heath of Jahveh’s anger is the burning wrath on account of the sins of Manasseh, with which the people has been threatened by the prophets. This wrath has not turned itself away, because even under Josiah the people has not sincerely returned to its God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet seems not yet to exhort his own nation to repent: a more gracious doctrine will presently follow; but here he only reminds them that a most grievous mourning was nigh at hand; for he saw that they were hypocrites, immersed in their own delusions, and could not be assailed by any fear. Hence he says, that they were greatly mistaken, if they thought themselves safe while God was angry with them.
Gird yourselves in sackcloth, he says, lament and howl; and then follows the reason, because the fury of God’s wrath was not turned away from them. We indeed know, that the ungodly are wont to make God subservient to themselves, as though they could by their perverseness turn aside or drive afar off his judgment, and restrain, as it were, his hand from acting. As, then, hypocrites are insolent towards God, the Prophet says expressly that the fury of his wrath was not turned away: and thus he warns them, that they would be in every way miserable until they were reconciled to God.
We now understand the design of the Prophet; for he confirms what the last verse contains, when he said that a lion had come forth, and that a desolator was already nigh; yea, he confirms what he had said, for there was no hope to them without having God propitious, and he declares that God was angry. Hence it follows, that all things would prove infelicitous to them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Gird you with sackcloth.From the earliest times the outward sign of mourning, and therefore of repentance (Joe. 1:8; Isa. 22:12).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Gird you with sackcloth This calamity, which on its surface would seem to be merely human, attributable solely to the ambition and rapacity of the Babylonish nation, is here referred to as an expression of the fierce anger of God: thus illustrating the truth so often brought out in the Old Testament, that God has a purpose even in the actions of evil agents. The grand condition of safety is harmony with God. His favour is the only defence which man’s hate cannot beat down.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Ver. 8. For this, gird you with sackcloth. ] Repent, if at least it be not too late, as the next words hint that now it was.
For the fierce wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
gird: Jer 6:26, Isa 15:3, Isa 22:12, Isa 32:11, Joe 2:12, Joe 2:13, Amo 8:10
howl: Jer 48:20, Isa 13:6, Isa 15:2, Isa 15:3, Eze 21:12, Eze 30:2
the: Isa 5:25, Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21, Isa 10:4
Reciprocal: Isa 3:24 – a girding Jer 25:34 – Howl Jer 25:36 – General Jer 49:3 – gird Joe 1:5 – weep Joe 1:13 – Gird Hab 1:6 – I raise Zep 1:11 – Howl Rom 4:15 – Because Jam 5:1 – weep
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 4:8. Gird you with sackcloth is a prediction of the sadness and humiliation that was to come upon the nation as a result of the invasion and captivity. Anger is not turned hack means the captivity was Inevitable in spite of all the reformative work of Hezektah and Josiah,
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The people of Judah were to go into mourning over this situation. They were to view it as part of the continuing judgment of Yahweh on them.