Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 9:18
And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Let them make haste: as by the calling for their artificial mourners he did intimate the greatness of the misery that was coming upon them, that with all, their art they could not sufficiently bewail it; so here, by making haste, he intimates the near approach of it, that it was even at the doors.
Take up a wailing for us; pitch upon some form of mourning that may be suitable to our condition.
Our eyelids gush out with waters: this and the former are each of them a hyperbolical expression, and yet are too little to bewail the greatness of the judgment, which suits with the prophets lamentation, Jer 9:1. The prophet would herein intimate that they that were so stupid as to hear the prophets denouncing their judgments with dry eyes, though he wished them to have been fountains of tears, shall now suddenly feel that they shall have cause enough to send for all the helps, not only real, but artificial, to stir up their mournings.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. (Jer14:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us,…. Deliver out a mournful song, as the Arabic version; setting forth their miseries and distresses, and affecting their minds with them. The prophet puts himself among the people, as being a party concealed in their sufferings, and sympathizing with them, as well as to show the certainty of then and how soon they would be involved in them:
that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters; or balls of the eye, as the Targum and Kimchi; these hyperbolical expressions are used to express the greatness of the calamity, and that no mourning was equal to it; see Jer 9:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jer 9:18 gives the reason why the mourning women are to be called: Loud lamentation is heard out of Zion. Ew. takes “out of Zion” of the Israelites carried away from their country – a view arbitrary in itself, and incompatible with Jer 9:20. “How are we spoiled!” cf. Jer 4:13; brought utterly to shame, because we have left the land, i.e., have been forced to leave it, and because they (the enemies) have thrown down our dwellings! , cast down, overthrow, Job 18:7, cf. Eze 19:12, and of buildings, Dan 8:11. Kimchi and Hitz., again, take “our dwellings” as subject: our dwellings have cast us out, and appeal to Lev 18:25: The land vomited out its inhabitants. But the figurative style in this passage does not justify us in adopting so unnatural a figure as this, that the dwellings cast out their occupants. Nor could the object be omitted in such a case. The passages, Isa 33:9; Mic 2:4, to which Hitz. appeals, are not analogous to the present one. The subject, not expressed, acc. to our view of the passage, is readily suggested by the context and the nature of the case. The “for” in Jer 9:19 gives a second reason for calling the mourning women together. They are to come not only to chant laments for the spoiling of Zion, but that they may train their daughters and other women in the art of dirge-singing, because the number of deaths will be so great that the existing number of mourning women will not be sufficient for the task about to fall on them. This thought is introduced by a command of God, in order to certify that this great harvest of death will without fail be gathered. and have masc. suffixes instead of feminine, the masc. being often thus used as the more general form; cf. Ew. 184, c. In the last clause the verb “teach” is to be supplied from the preceding context.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Let them, he says, take up for us a wailing, and let our eyes come down to tears, and let our eyelids flow down into waters These are hyperbolical words, and yet they do not exceed the intensehess of the coming vengeance: for it was not in vain that he said at the begSnning of the chapter, “Who will make my head waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears?” As then the greatness of the calamity could be expressed by no words, the Prophet was constrained to adopt these hyperbolical expressions: Let them then take up for us a wailing, that our eyes may come down to tears: and this he said, because he saw that he was heard with dry eyes, and that the people disregarded what had been denounced:, when yet all ought to have been smitten with fear, from the least to the greatest. As then the Prophet saw that their contempt was so brutal, he says, that when lainenters came, there would then be the time for wailing, not indeed the seasonable time; but it is the same as though he had said, that the Jews would then find out how insensible they had been, in not having in due time considered the judgment of God. (251) It follows —
(251) I render the verses thus, —
17. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, bethink yourselves; And call for mourning women, that they may come; Yea, for the skillful send, that they may come,
18. And hasten, and raise for us a wailing, That our eyes may pour forth tears, And our eyelids drop down waters.
—
Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Take up a wailing for us.There is in all such figures of speech an inevitable blending of metaphors. The mourners wail for the dead nation, and yet the members of the nation are sharers in the obsequies, and their eyes run down with tears.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 9:18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Ver. 18. And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us. ] Of this vanity or affectation God approveth not, as neither he did of the Olympic games, of usury, of that custom at Corinth, 1Co 15:29 which yet he maketh his use of.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
take: Jer 9:10, Jer 9:20
our eyes: Jer 9:1, Jer 6:26, Jer 13:17, Jer 14:17, Isa 22:4, Lam 1:2, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:18, Luk 19:41
Reciprocal: 1Sa 15:11 – it grieved 2Ki 8:11 – wept Ezr 2:65 – two hundred Job 3:8 – who are ready Psa 119:136 – General Isa 15:5 – My heart Lam 3:48 – General Eze 19:1 – take Eze 24:16 – thy tears Eze 32:2 – take up Amo 5:16 – Wailing
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 9:18. Make haste means to be prompt in forming a wailing for the people for the captivity js but a few years in the future. The reference to fears and the eyes is just another figurative prediction of the distress about to come.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Lord wanted these women to come quickly and mourn on His behalf, wailing and shedding many tears.