Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 8:21
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
21. the hurt ] lit. the breach, and so the verb that follows.
black ] mg. mourning (as to garb). Cp. on Jer 4:28.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the hurt … hurt – literally, Because of the breaking … broken. These are the words of the prophet, whose heart is crushed by the cry of his countrymen.
I am black – Or, I go mourning.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The prophet here shows how deeply he is affected with the peoples misery, he deeply sympathized with them.
The hurt; it signifies breach, I am broken in my spirit; and so it answers to the breach that is made upon the people.
I am black; I am as those that are clad in deep mourning, Psa 38:6; Jer 14:2.
Astonishment hath taken hold on me; I am amazed to think that my people should sin themselves beyond help, no remedy for them, as the next verse, that no threatenings or counsels should prevail with them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. blacksad in visage withgrief (Joe 2:6).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt,…. These are the words, not of God, as Jerom; nor of Jerusalem, as the Targum; but of the prophet, as Kimchi observes, expressing his sympathy with the people in their affliction: and they may be rendered, “for the breach of the daughter of my people” o, which was made when the city was broken up and destroyed, Jer 52:7.
I am broken; in heart and spirit:
I am black; with grief and sorrow. The Targum is,
“my face is covered with blackness, black as a pot.”
Astonishment hath taken hold on me; at the miseries that were come upon his people; and there was no remedy for them, which occasion the following words.
o “super contritione”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; “super confractione”, Schmidt; “ob fractionem”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As the hardness of the people was so great, that the threatenings we have observed did not touch them, the Prophet now ascribes to himself what he had before attributed to them. We then see how the Prophet varies his mode of speaking; but it was necessary, for he was at a loss to find a way to address them sufficiently strong to penetrate into their stony and even iron hearts. We need not wonder, then, that there are so many figurative terms used by the Prophet; for it was needful to set before them God’s judgment in various ways, that the people might be awakened out of their torpid state.
He then says, that he was bruised for the bruising of his people. He was no doubt ridiculed by most of them: “ Oh! thou grievest for thine own evils; it is well and prosperous with us: who has asked thee for this pity? Think not, then, that thou canst gain any favor with us, for we are contented with our lot. Weep rather for thine own calamities, if thou hast any at home; but suffer us at the same time to enjoy our pleasures, since God is propitious and indulgent to us. ” Thus then was the Prophet derided; but yet he warns the obstinate people, that they might be less excusable: he says, that he was rendered black; for sorrow brings blackness with it, and makes dark the face of man: it is a metaphorical expression. He says at last, that he was astonished (233) The astonishment with which he was seized he no doubt sets down as being the opposite of the people’s torpor and insensibility, for they had no fear for themselves. It follows —
(233) To keep throughout the metaphorical character of this verse, it ought to be rendered thus, —
For the bruising of the daughter of my people I was bruised, I became black; Desolation possessed me.
But taking the words as applied to the mind, divested of metaphor, we must render them thus, —
For the sorrow of the daughter of my people I sorrowed, I mourned; Astonishment possessed me.
And this “astonishment” he explains in the next verse: there were means of restoration, and yet the people were not restored; at this he was astonished. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) For the hurt . . .Now the prophet again speaks in his own person. He is crushed in that crushing of his people. His face is darkened, as one that mourns. (Comp. Psa. 38:6; Jos. 5:11.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Am I hurt Thus does the prophet identify himself with his people in their humiliation. The language here is highly emotional; the short, nervous sentences marking the warm feeling of the writer as more diffuse words could not.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 8:21. For the hurt, &c. Jeremiah here deplores the misfortunes of Jerusalem, and continues to do so in the subsequent chapter. Houbigant renders this verse, I am wounded with the wound of the daughter of my people. I am thrown into grief; astonishment hath seized me; and so the French, J’en suis attriste.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
Ver. 21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, I am black. ] Or, I go in black, mourner like; for I am denigrated and contemned for bewailing my people’s misery, who neither feel nor fear hurt.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the hurt: Jer 4:19, Jer 9:1, Jer 14:17, Jer 17:16, Neh 2:3, Psa 137:3-6, Luk 19:41, Rom 9:1-3
I am: Son 1:5, Son 1:6, Joe 2:6, Nah 2:10
Reciprocal: Isa 1:6 – they have Jer 6:26 – daughter Jer 8:4 – Moreover Jer 10:19 – Woe Jer 14:2 – they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 8:21. Jeremiah is again “taking it to heart about the sad prospect of his countrymen. I am hlack is figurative and means he is in mourning for his people.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 8:21-22. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt, &c. These are the words of the prophet, lamenting the miserable condition of his country. The Hebrew is more literally rendered, For the breach of the daughter of my people am I broken, that is, heart-broken: or, as Houbigant renders it, I am wounded with the wound of my people. I am black I look ghastly, as those who are dying. Astonishment hath taken hold on me I am so stupified that I know not what to do, or which way to turn. Is there no balm in Gilead Balm, or balsam, is used with us as a common name for many of those oily, resinous substances, which flow spontaneously, or by incision, from certain trees or plants, and are of considerable use in medicine and surgery, being good, as physicians inform us, to soften, assuage, warm, dissolve, cleanse, dry up, and purge. The Hebrew word here used, , is rendered by the LXX., , and interpreted resin by the ancients in general. For this balm, resin, or turpentine, as the word might be rendered, Gilead was famous from very ancient times. See Gen 37:25, where we find Joseph was sold to Ishmaelite merchants, who came from Gilead, and carried it, with sweet spices, into Egypt. This made many physicians and surgeons to resort to Gilead. The prophet applies this metaphorically to the state of the Jews, which was all over corrupted, (compare Isa 1:6,) and represents God as asking whether there have been no methods used to heal these mortal wounds and distempers? or, if there have, how it comes to pass they should have so little success? As if he had said, Whence comes it that the wounds of my people have not been healed and closed? Have means of healing been wanting? Spiritual medicines or physicians? Have I not sent you prophets, who have admonished, warned, and instructed you? Have I not given you time, and furnished you with helps sufficient to enable you to return to your duty? Why then are not your spiritual disorders cured? Doubtless it is your own fault: it is because you would not make use of the remedies provided, nor follow the prescriptions of the physicians. Thus we may apply the words spoken concerning Babylon, Jer 51:9, to the present case: we would have healed Babylon, but she is not, or rather, she would not, be healed. The words may likewise be understood of a temporal deliverance. As if he had said, Is this people so forsaken both of God and men, that there is no remedy left to effect their deliverance? Are there no salutary means within reach, or no persons that know how to apply them, for the relief of my country from those miseries with which it is afflicted? Observe, reader, 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: both are sufficient, all-sufficient, to effect a perfect cure; so that they might have been healed, but would not.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I {q} hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
(q) The prophet speaks this.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah was all broken up over the broken condition of his people. Dismay had seized him, and he could not stop mourning.