When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.
- BSB My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.
- NKJV I would comfort myself in sorrow; My heart is faint in me.
- NASB ¶My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!
- NLT My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken.
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
The prophet's heart faints with grief he cannot console. Jeremiah feels the sorrow of his people's coming doom.
Overview
Here Jeremiah's own anguish breaks through; he can find no comfort against the overwhelming sorrow. The 'weeping prophet' identifies deeply with the suffering judgment will bring. His tender grief over a sinful people reflects God's own heart and anticipates the greater Prophet who wept over Jerusalem and bore its sorrows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lam 5:17For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
- Isa 22:4Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
- Jer 6:24We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
- Lam 1:16–17For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
- Hab 3:16When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
- Jer 10:19–22Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
- Job 7:13–14When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;
- Dan 10:16–17And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
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 8:18 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.