Jeremiah 8:18

THE MESSAGE

I drown in grief. I'm heartsick. Oh, listen! Please listen! It's the cry of my dear people reverberating through the country. Is God no longer in Zion? Has the King gone away? Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods, their silly, imported no-gods before me? The crops are in, the summer is over, but for us nothing's changed. We're still waiting to be rescued. For my dear broken people, I'm heartbroken. I weep, seized by grief. Are there no healing ointments in Gilead? Isn't there a doctor in the house? So why can't something be done to heal and save my dear, dear people?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My joy has flown away;grief has settled on me.My heart is sick.

Hebrew Names Version
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

King James Version
When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

English Standard Version
My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me.

New American Standard Bible
My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!

New Century Version
God, you are my comfort when I am very sad and when I am afraid.

Amplified Bible
Oh, that I (Jeremiah) could find comfort from my sorrow [for my grief is beyond healing], My heart is sick and faint within me!

World English Bible
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I would haue comforted my selfe against sorowe, but mine heart is heauie in me.

Legacy Standard Bible
My sorrow is beyond healing;My heart is faint within me!

Berean Standard Bible
My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.

Contemporary English Version
I'm burdened with sorrow and feel like giving up.

Complete Jewish Bible
My grief has no cure, I am sick at heart.

Darby Translation
My comfort in my sadness! my heart is faint in me!

Easy-to-Read Version
God, I am very sad and afraid.

George Lamsa Translation
I am weary with sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

Good News Translation
My sorrow cannot be healed; I am sick at heart.

Lexham English Bible
"My comfort is gone from me, sorrow is on me, my heart is sick.

Literal Translation
My refreshing is beyond grief; my heart is sick within me.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Sorowe is come vpon me, and heuynes vexeth my herte:

American Standard Version
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

Bible in Basic English
Sorrow has come on me! my heart in me is feeble.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Though I would take comfort against sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

King James Version (1611)
When I would comfort my selfe against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I woulde haue had comfort against sorowe: but sorowe is come vpon me, and heauinesse vexeth my heart.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
mortally with the pain of your distressed heart.

English Revised Version
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
My sorewe is on sorewe, myn herte is mourenynge in me.

Update Bible Version
I am grimacing because of my sorrow. My heart is faint inside me.

Webster's Bible Translation
[When] I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart [is] faint in me.

New English Translation
Then I said, "There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart!

New King James Version
I would comfort myself in sorrow; My heart is faint in me.

New Living Translation
My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken.

New Life Bible
My sorrow is too much to heal. My heart is weak within me.

New Revised Standard
My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
When I would have cheered myself against sorrow, Against me, mine own heart sickened: -

Douay-Rheims Bible
My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.

Revised Standard Version
My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me.

Young's Literal Translation
My refreshing for me [is] sorrow, For me my heart [is] sick.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me!

Contextual Overview

¹³ "‘I went out to see if I could salvage anything'" — God 's Decree— "‘but found nothing: Not a grape, not a fig, just a few withered leaves. I'm taking back everything I gave them.'" ¹⁴So why are we sitting here, doing nothing? Let's get organized. Let's go to the big city and at least die fighting. We've gotten God 's ultimatum: We're damned if we do and damned if we don't— damned because of our sin against him. We hoped things would turn out for the best, but it didn't happen that way. We were waiting around for healing— and terror showed up! From Dan at the northern borders we hear the hooves of horses, Horses galloping, horses neighing. The ground shudders and quakes. They're going to swallow up the whole country. Towns and people alike—fodder for war. ¹⁷ "‘What's more, I'm dispatching poisonous snakes among you, Snakes that can't be charmed, snakes that will bite you and kill you.'" God 's Decree! ¹⁸I drown in grief. I'm heartsick. Oh, listen! Please listen! It's the cry of my dear people reverberating through the country. Is God no longer in Zion? Has the King gone away? Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods, their silly, imported no-gods before me? The crops are in, the summer is over, but for us nothing's changed. We're still waiting to be rescued. For my dear broken people, I'm heartbroken. I weep, seized by grief. Are there no healing ointments in Gilead? Isn't there a doctor in the house? So why can't something be done to heal and save my dear, dear people?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my: Jeremiah 6:24, Jeremiah 10:19-22, Job 7:13, Job 7:14, Isaiah 22:4, Lamentations 1:16, Lamentations 1:17, Daniel 10:16, Daniel 10:17, Habakkuk 3:16

in: Heb. upon

Reciprocal: Job 9:27 - General Psalms 13:2 - sorrow Isaiah 15:5 - My heart Jeremiah 8:4 - Moreover Jeremiah 9:10 - the mountains Jeremiah 14:17 - let mine Jeremiah 20:18 - to see Jeremiah 45:3 - I fainted Lamentations 1:22 - my heart Lamentations 5:17 - our heart Ezekiel 21:7 - faint John 14:1 - not 2 Corinthians 7:5 - our Philippians 2:27 - but on

Gill's Notes on the Bible

When I would comfort myself against terror,.... Either naturally, by eating and drinking, the necessary and lawful means of refreshment; or spiritually, by reading the word of God, and looking over the promises in it:

my heart is faint in me; at the consideration of the calamities which were coming upon his people, and which were made known to him by a spirit of prophecy, of which he had no room to doubt. So the Targum takes them to be the words of the prophet, paraphrasing them,

"for them, saith the prophet, my heart grieves.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather, “O my comfort in sorrow: my heart faints for me.” The word translated “comfort” is by some supposed to be corrupt. With these mournful ejaculations a new strophe begins, ending with Jeremiah 9:1, in which the prophet mourns over the miserable fate of his countrymen, among whom he had been earnestly laboring, but all in vain.