“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”
- KJV Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
- NKJV “Yourways and your doings Have procured these things for you. This is your wickedness, Because it is bitter, Because it reaches to your heart.”
- NASB “Your ways and your deeds Have brought these things upon you. This is your evil. How bitter! How it has touched your heart!”
- NLT “Your own actions have brought this upon you. This punishment is bitter, piercing you to the heart!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God tells Judah that her own ways and deeds have brought this bitter judgment upon her. It matters because it places responsibility squarely on the people's sin.
Overview
The Lord declares that the disaster is the fruit of Judah's own wickedness, bitter and piercing to the heart. Sin carries built-in consequences that reach the very core of life. This sober principle that we reap what we sow drives sinners to seek the grace that breaks the chain of guilt (Galatians 6:7-8; Proverbs 5:22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 2:19Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- Ps 107:17Fools, in their rebellious ways, and through their iniquities, suffered affliction.
- Prov 1:31So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Jer 2:17Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
- Isa 50:1This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- Jer 6:19Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction.
- Prov 5:22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Job 20:5–16the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
- Jer 26:19Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did Hezekiah not fear the LORD and seek His favor, and did not the LORD relent of the disaster He had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great harm on ourselves!”
- Jer 5:19And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 4:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.