Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
- KJV And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
- NKJV Let them make haste And take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may run with tears, And our eyelids gush with water.
- NASB “Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us, So that our eyes may shed tears, And our eyelids flow with water.
- NLT Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes.
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 mourners are urged to wail quickly so that everyone's eyes overflow with tears. The grief is meant to be immediate and unrestrained.
Overview
The call is for haste in lamentation so that tears stream from all eyes. The intensity underscores the magnitude of the disaster overtaking Judah. Such public weeping is the fitting response to sin's devastating fruit, and it presses the people toward the sorrow that, rightly directed, leads to repentance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 9:1Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.
- Isa 22:4Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
- Jer 14:17You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.
- Jer 9:20Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament.
- Lam 2:11My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
- Jer 13:17But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
- Lam 1:2She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
- Jer 9:10I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Jer 6:26O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- Lam 2:18The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.
- Luke 19:41As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 9:18 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.