Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Jeremiah 30:5

in Jeremiah 30

Yes, this is what the LORD says: “A cry of panic is heard—a cry of terror, not of peace.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For thus saith Jehovah: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

KJV

For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

⋯

This verse in Jeremiah 30

Commentary

6 notes on this verse
Better, as in the margin. The prophet places his hearers in the center of Babylon, and describes it as convulsed with terror as the armies of Cyrus draw near. The voice of trembling is the war-cry of the advancing host: while fear and no peace implies that even among the exiles there is only alarm at the prospect of the city, where they had so long dwelt, being destroyed.

This site's exposition

a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace

on Jeremiah 30:5-7

The nation's fear is described in the rawest terms, a voice of trembling and not of peace, men gripped like a woman in labor, every face gone pale, language of terror rather than of comfort. Yet the verse turns on itself: alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it, but he shall be saved out of it, judgment and rescue held in one breath. The phrase the time of Jacob's trouble became, in later Jewish and Christian reading alike, a name for the nation's final ordeal before deliverance, a use the commentators trace directly to this verse.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 4 and following) And these are the words that the Lord spoke to Israel and Judah, for this is what the Lord says: We have heard the voice of terror (or fear), and there is no peace. Inquire and see if a male gives birth. Why then do I see every man with his hand on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces have turned pale? First, sadness is announced, so that after the magnitude of evils, joy may follow.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

For thus saith the Lord,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

No marvel that when without are fightings within are fears. The men, even the men of war, shall be quite overwhelmed with the calamities of their nation, shall sink under them, and yield to them, and shall look like women in labour, whose pains come upon them in great extremity and they know that they cannot escape them,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

We have heard a voice of trembling - This may refer to the state and feelings of the people during the war which Cyrus carried on against the Babylonians. Trembling and terror would no doubt affect them, and put an end to peace and all prosperity; as they could not tell what would be the issue of the struggle, and whether their state would be better or worse should their present masters fall in the conflict. This is well described in the next verse, where men are represented as being, through pain and anguish, like women in travail. See the same comparison Isa 13:6-8.

The words behind it

10 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • כֹה֙thus

    khohH3541 →577 times

  • אָמַ֣רhe says

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • ק֥וֹלa sound of

    kolH6963 →506 times

  • חֲרָדָ֖הfear

    charadahH2731 →

  • שָׁמָ֑עְנוּwe have heard

    shamaenuH8085 →1159 times

  • פַּ֖חַדdread

    pachadH6343 →49 times

  • וְאֵ֥יןand there not

    veeinH369 →789 times

  • שָׁלֽוֹם׃[is] peace

    shalomH7965 →236 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

16 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Amos 8:10I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.3 worksZephaniah 1:10–11On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills.3 worksIsaiah 5:30In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.3 worksLuke 19:41–44As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it3 worksJeremiah 25:36Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the LORD is destroying their pasture.2 worksAmos 5:16–18Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.2 works
The other 10 cross-references, with their words ▾
Luke 23:29–30Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’2 worksJeremiah 9:19For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”2 worksJeremiah 6:23–25They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.”2 worksJeremiah 4:15–20For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.2 worksIsaiah 59:11We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.2 worksJeremiah 46:5Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!” declares the LORD.2 worksLuke 21:25–26There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.2 worksJeremiah 8:19Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”2 worksJeremiah 31:15–16This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”2 worksJeremiah 46:9Advance, O horses! Race furiously, O chariots! Let the warriors come forth—Cush and Put carrying their shields, men of Lydia drawing the bow.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Isaiah 5:30

    In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 8:22

      Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

    • Joel 2:10

      Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.

    • Jeremiah 4:23–28

      I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

  • Through

    Amos 8:10

    I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 6:26

      O 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.

    • Zechariah 12:10

      Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They…

    • Jeremiah 48:37

      For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.

    • Ezekiel 7:18

      They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

    • Job 20:23

      When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Jeremiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Jeremiah: the study guide →Read Jeremiah 30 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Jeremiah 30 →