“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.”
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB “Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the 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 2:19“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
- Ps 107:17Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities.
- Prov 1:31Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.
- Jer 2:17“Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
- Isa 50:1Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
- Jer 6:19Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
- Prov 5:22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
- Job 20:5–16that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?
- Jer 26:19Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn’t he fear Yahweh, and entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? We would commit great evil against our own souls that way!”
- Jer 5:19It will happen, when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
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.