Jeremiah 4:8

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.] Or, Because the fierce wrath of the Lord will not turn from us; it will have its full forth. See Zep 2:2. {See Trapp on "Zec 2:2"}

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.

4:8 The Israelites were in trouble with the Lord and needed to make things right with him. Putting an army in the field or organizing guerrilla bands would be futile. Instead, Jeremiah called for the people to repent by mourning and by weeping with broken hearts (Isa 22:12). By using the pronoun us, the prophet seems to include himself in the need for repentance (see Jer 10:24).

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

Nothing is left to the Jews but to bewail their desperate condition.

anger . . . not turned back-- (Isa 9:12, Isa 9:17, Isa 9:21).

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. Lament and howl] הילילו 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.

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

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.

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) Gird you with sackcloth.—From the earliest times the outward sign of mourning, and therefore of repentance (Joe_1:8; Isa_22:12).

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

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, Kg2 23:25.

(u) "ab illo", i.e. "ab illo proposito", Cocceius; "ab eo", Montanus.

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

Is not turned ... - As long as their sins are unrepented of, so long must their punishment continue.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

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

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.

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

Is not turned back from us. As we in our folly believed. (Jer_2:35)

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

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.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Because of this What is “this?” “For the fierce anger etc.” Although he spoke above concerning Nebuchadnezzar in regards to the destruction, here he returns to speak of the death of Josiah.

for the fierce anger of the Lord etc. Although Josiah repented wholeheartedly, it is stated concerning him. (II Kings 23:26)... “the Lord did not turn back from his great wrath...because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him.”

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.