Jeremiah 20:8

Jer 20:8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

Ver. 8. For since I spake, I cried out,] i.e., Ever since I took upon me the office of a prophet, I executed it vigorously, I cried with full mouth. {Jer 4:5 Isa 58:1}

I cried violence and spoil,] sc., Will surely befall you by the Chaldees. Or, I cried out of my misusages.

Because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily.] This was all the recompense I reaped of my goodwill to this perverse people, and of my pains taken among them. Few sins are more dangerous than those of casting reproaches upon God’s Word, as here; of snuffing at it; {Mal 1:13} of enviously swelling at it; {Act 13:45} of chatting at it; {Rom 9:19-20} of stumbling at it; {1Pe 2:8} of gathering odious consequences from it. {Rom 3:8}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 20:8-9. For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil — Or, rather, as Houbigant renders it, For since I spake, and cried against iniquity, and denounced desolation, the word of the Lord, &c. — Blaney’s translation is nearly to the same sense: For as often as I speak, whether I cry out against injustice or proclaim devastation, the word of Jehovah is turned against me into matter of reproach and derision continually. The prophet means that, upon account of declaring what God had revealed to him, he was reckoned an enemy to his country, and a false prophet. Then I said — Namely, within myself, for he did not speak this to any one; I will not make mention of him — Or, of it, namely, the word of God, or the message God had appointed him to deliver; nor speak any more in his name — I resolved no more to declare what God had revealed to me concerning the calamities which he was about to bring on Judah and Jerusalem. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire — It glowed inwardly, and must have vent: I found myself so pressed in spirit, felt such a burning ardour within my breast, such an immediate and powerful impulse of the prophetic spirit constraining me to speak, that I could no more be easy without executing God’s commands, than if a burning fire had been shut up in my bones. The conviction of his own mind that he ought to speak, his zeal for the glory of God, his indignation at the sins of the people, and his compassion for their souls, would not suffer him to rest, or allow him to forbear declaring God’s message.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:8-9 Jeremiah found it impossible not to speak the words of God’s judgment, even though his messages turned him into a household joke (cp. Job 32:18-20; Ps 39:1-3; Acts 4:18-20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He showeth that he did his office in that he reproved the people of their vices, and threatened them with God’s judgments: but because he was derided and persecuted for this, he was discouraged, and thought to have ceased to preach, save that God’s Spirit did force him thereunto.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Rather, "Whenever I speak, I cry out. Concerning violence and spoil, I (am compelled to) cry out," that is, complain [MAURER]. English Version in the last clause is more graphic, "I cried violence and spoil" (Jer 6:7)! I could not speak in a calm tone; their desperate wickedness compelled me to "cry out."

because--rather, "therefore," the apodosis of the previous sentence; because in discharging my prophetic functions, I not merely spake, but cried; and cried, violence . . . ; therefore the word of the Lord was made a reproach to me (Jer 20:7).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. I cried violence and spoil] This was the burden of the message thou didst give me.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Prophet says here that he found no fruit from his labors, but on the contrary, he saw that all his efforts and endeavors had an opposite effect; for they exasperated all the Jews, inflamed their rage, and drove them into a greater licentiousness in sinning. Hence he says, that he purposed to give up the office assigned to him, but that by a secret impulse he was constrained to persevere, and that thus he was not at liberty to desist from the course which he had begun.

But the verse is variously explained; From the time I spoke, I cried violence aloud and proclaimed devastation Thus some take the words, as though Jeremiah said, that since he began to teach he uttered complaints; for he saw that he was violently assailed and was exposed to all kinds of wrongs: but this view appears to me too frigid. Others come nearer to the truth who consider him as saying, that he had not ceased to cry against outrages and plunders, when he saw that all kinds of wickedness prevailed among the people; as though he had said, “I could not mildly and peaceably teach them, for their disposition and temper prevented me, but their wickedness compelled me to treat them with severity, as all God’s servants ought wisely to consider what the state of the Church requires.” If indeed we should in tranquil times cry aloud, it would be mad affectation; and this is what is done by many, who without thought and without any reason always make a great cry; but when we see Satan reigning, we ought not then to withhold nor to act as in a truce; but as it is an open war it is necessary to cry aloud. They who take this view, then, understand that Jeremiah cried aloud, because he saw that the people were refractory, and also saw that things were so bad that they could not be restored to a right state without the greatest sharpness and vehemence.

But I rather think that the Prophet had another kind of trial, — that he brought down a greater vengeance of God by his cries, as though he had said, “To what purpose should I furnish God with weapons by my preaching? since I do nothing but increase his wrath, which will at length fulminate and consume the whole land together with the people.” He then says, that he cried violence and devastation aloud, for impiety itself is a sort of hostile violence by which God is provoked. The meaning is, that the Prophet saw no other fruit to his labor, but that men were rendered more insolent, and from being thieves became robbers, and from being disdainful became ruffians, so that they increasingly kindled God’s wrath, and more fully abandoned themselves. This was indeed a most severe and dangerous trial; it is therefore no wonder that the Prophet says, that it came to his mind to turn aside from his office as a teacher.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) I cried out, I cried.—The two Hebrew words are not, as in the English, alike, the first being the cry of complaint, the second of protest: When I speak (the tense implies from the beginning of his work till now), I complain; I call out (against) violence and spoil. They had formed the burden of his discourses, he had borne his witness against them, and yet “the word of Jehovah” so proclaimed by him had exposed him simply to derision. He had been the champion of the people’s rights, and yet they mocked and scorned him.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. Violence and spoil] directed generally against himself. Cp. Jer_5:26-28, Jer_9:4.

a reproach unto me, and a derision] Words applied to his own case by the great Florentine, Savonarola, “I have had nothing but tribulations, derision, and reproach.” Clark’s Savonarola, p. 169.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For since I spake, I cried out,.... Or, "when I speak, I cry" (a); whensoever I speak in the name of the Lord, and deliver message from him to the people, I lift up my voice and cry aloud, that all may hear and understand; and as showing zeal, fervour, and diligence: or, "I cry" with grief and trouble at the usage I meet with, and the contempt that is cast upon the word; or because of what I am obliged to declare to them, as follows. The Targum takes in both sense, of the word thus,

"for at the time that I prophesy, I lift up my voice, weeping, and crying.''

I cried violence and spoil: or, "proclaimed" it (b), for a different word is here used; that is, he publicly declared the rapine and oppression they were guilty of, inveighed against it, and reproved them for it; and foretold the violence of the enemy, and the spoil that he should make of them, when he should come upon them, even the king of Babylon; as well as cried out and complained of the injurious treatment he himself met with from them;

because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily; which is a reason either why he cried with grief and sorrow; or why he cried violence and spoil, ruin and destruction: or, "though the word of the Lord was" (c), &c. yet he went on publishing and proclaiming it: or, "surely the word of the Lord was made a reproach" (d), &c. either because of the matter of it, it not being believed, or the manner in which it was delivered; or because it was not immediately fulfilled.

(a) "quum loquor exclamavi, i.e. loquor exclamans", Gataker. (b) "clamo", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius; "proclamo", Piscator. (c) "quamvis". (d) "Verum, verbum Domini", so some in Vatablus; "utique", De Dieu, Gataker.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Day. They keep asking where are these enemies from the north, the plagues? &c. (Calmet) --- He is sorry to see the word of God despised, (Theodoret) and is guilty of a venial pusillanimity, concluding that his words had no good effect. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

For since I spake, I cried out: if the particle be translated since, as we translate it, the meaning is, Since I first began to be a prophet, I have faithfully discharged my prophetical office, and that with some warmth and zeal.

I cried violence and spoil: some understand it of the violence which he himself experienced: others understand it of those acts of injustice and violence which were found amongst the people; he cried out against them: others understand it as a denunciation of judgment; he prophesied that violence and spoil was coming upon them.

Because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily; because of that scorn and derision with which they treated him. But others think that it were better translated surely than because, as it is in many texts, Isa 60:9; 63:16, &c. It is not much material which way we translate it, for it appeareth, from 2Ch 36:16, that this people’s mocking of God’s messengers, despising his words, and misusing his prophets, was one great cause of the wrath of God coming upon them; and it is certain that Jeremiah was made such a scorn and derision to them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Since I spake, I cried out — Rather, when I speak, I cry out, as if in pain or protest. The first “cried out” means to make an outcry as in danger or pain; the second cried means to call out — proclaim. Such was the subversion of justice on every side — the violence and spoil — that he could not speak calmly, but only cry out.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For since I spake, I cried out, etc.; rather, For as often as I speak, I must shout; I must cry, Violence and spoil; I can take up no other tone but that of indignant denunciation, no other theme but that of the acts of injustice constantly committed (not merely, nor indeed chiefly, against the prophet himself). Was made; rather, is made.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Since - Since I first began to be a prophet, I have faithfully discharged my office, and that with warmth and zeal. Spoil - I have prophesied that violence and spoil was coming. Because - Because of that scorn and derision with which they treated him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Whenever I speak Every time I speak to them, I must cry out and raise my voice, and I do not proclaim good for them but prophecies of violence and spoil.

for the word of the Lord has been...for me Therefore, they spoke to me with scorn, for they scorn me.

and mockery for speech. Comp. (Ezekiel 22:4) “and mockery (וְקַלָּסָה).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.