Jeremiah 13:17
in Jeremiah 13But 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Jehovah’s flock is taken captive.
KJV
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.
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This verse in Jeremiah 13
Commentary
12 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The Lord’s flock - The people carried away captive with Jeconiah formed the Jewish Church, as we are expressly told, whereas Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem possessed only the externals of the Church and not its reality. It is for this reason that the seventy years’ exile counts from Jeconiah’s captivity.
This site's exposition
Do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken
on Jeremiah 13:15-17
The call to “Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness” offers one more chance to turn. The people wait for light, and the LORD turns it into thick darkness. Jeremiah’s own grief breaks into the sermon, “I will weep in secret because of your pride”.
This site's exposition
But if you do not listen
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read weeping in secret as mourning for their sin, free of self-righteous blame. Albert Barnes takes the flock of the LORD as the exiles carried off with Jeconiah, the true core of the Jewish Church. Barnes counts the seventy years from that captivity.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verse 16, 17.) Give glory to the Lord your God ((or our)) before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon dark (or gloomy) mountains. You will wait for light, but there will be only darkness (or according to the Hebrew, he will put it in darkness and gloom). And if you will not listen, your soul ((or mine)) will weep in secret because of arrogance (or injury).
"But if you do not hear in secret, your soul shall weep before the face of insolence." Of those who hear, some hear in secret, but others, even if they hear, do not hear in secret. What then is it to hear in secret, other than "but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God foreordained before the ages for our glory"? And again elsewhere it is said that "the greater part of the works of God are in hidden things."
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
But if ye will not hear it,....
He is to convince them that it is for their obstinacy and incorrigibleness that the judgments of God are so prolonged and brought to extremity,
(2.) To see their calamity past redress and remedy: " My eyes shall weep sorely, not so much because my relations, friends, and neighbours are in distress, but because the Lord's flock, his people and the sheep of his pasture, are carried away captive. " That should always grieve us most by which God's honour suffers and the interest of his kingdom is weakened.
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
hear it--my exhortation. in secret--as one mourning and humbling himself for their sin, not self-righteously condemning them (Php 3:18). pride--(see on Jer 13:15; Job 33:17). flock-- (Jer 13:20), just as kings and leaders are called pastors.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
IN this chapter Jeremiah had proclaimed the judgment of God against His sinful people under two very striking figures. Israel had been to God what a sash is to a man—the people had been bound closely about Him in His great love and favor. But on account of their sin, the Lord would put them away and they should be hidden by the Euphrates till their beauty was marred—until, in fact, like a rotten sash, their whole state had become decayed. "Thus says the Lord, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem." Then He spoke to them by a second parable—"Every bottle shall be filled with wine"—and he showed how God's wrath would come upon the people to fill them with a judicial drunkenness, so that they should become drunk, and in their delirium should strive, one with another, to their mutual undoing. The Lord declared that thus He would "dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together." Thus, under two homely but exceedingly terrible figures, Jeremiah preached the Law of God to the people, that they might be humbled under a sense of sin. Had they but felt the force of this teaching, they would have begun to mourn for their sin and, under dread of wrath, they would have cried for mercy. Taking it for granted that this might be the case, though, alas, it did not so happen, the Lord gave to His Prophet an interval for proclaiming mercy. After those two great thunderclaps of judgment came a gracious shower of Grace.
IN this chapter Jeremiah had proclaimed the judgment of God against His sinful people under two very striking figures. Israel had been to God what a sash is to a man—the people had been bound closely about Him in His great love and favor. But on account of their sin, the Lord would put them away and they should be hidden by the Euphrates till their beauty was marred—until, in fact, like a rotten sash, their whole state had become decayed.
My soul shalt weep in secret places - If you will not hearken to the Lord, there is no remedy: destruction must come; and there is nothing left for me, but to go in secret, and mourn and bewail your wretched lot.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
and before your feet stumble Heb. יתנגפו (achopper in French), to stumble.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
17 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאִם֙ | veim | and if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| לֹ֣א | lo' | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תִשְׁמָע֔וּהָ | tishmauha | you will listen to it | H8085 → | 1159 times |
| בְּמִסְתָּרִ֥ים | bemistarim | in secret places | H4565 → | 10 times |
| תִּבְכֶּֽה־ | tivkeh- | it will weep | H1058 → | 114 times |
| נַפְשִׁ֖י | nafshi | self my | H5315 → | 754 times |
| מִפְּנֵ֣י | mipenei | <from> because of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| גֵוָ֑ה | gevah | pride | H1466 → | |
| וְדָמֹ֨עַ | vedamoa' | and utterly <to weep> | H1830 → | |
| תִּדְמַ֜ע | tidma' | it will weep | H1830 → | |
| וְתֵרַ֤ד | veterad | and it may run down | H3381 → | 381 times |
| עֵינִי֙ | ʾeini | eye my | H5869 → | 887 times |
| דִּמְעָ֔ה | dimah | tear[s] | H1832 → | 23 times |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| נִשְׁבָּ֖ה | nishbah | it has been taken captive | H7617 → | 47 times |
| עֵ֥דֶר | ʾeder | [the] flock of | H5739 → | 38 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ ס | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
וְאִם֙and if
veimH518 →1069 times
לֹ֣אnot
lo'H3808 →5168 times
תִשְׁמָע֔וּהָyou will listen to it
tishmauhaH8085 →1159 times
בְּמִסְתָּרִ֥יםin secret places
bemistarimH4565 →10 times
תִּבְכֶּֽה־it will weep
tivkeh-H1058 →114 times
נַפְשִׁ֖יself my
nafshiH5315 →754 times
מִפְּנֵ֣י<from> because of
mipeneiH6440 →2123 times
גֵוָ֑הpride
gevahH1466 →
וְדָמֹ֨עַand utterly <to weep>
vedamoa'H1830 →
תִּדְמַ֜עit will weep
tidma'H1830 →
וְתֵרַ֤דand it may run down
veteradH3381 →381 times
עֵינִי֙eye my
ʾeiniH5869 →887 times
דִּמְעָ֔הtear[s]
dimahH1832 →23 times
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
נִשְׁבָּ֖הit has been taken captive
nishbahH7617 →47 times
עֵ֥דֶר[the] flock of
ʾederH5739 →38 times
יְהוָֽה׃ סYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Malachi 2:2If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse…
it leads to
- Luke 17:18
Was no one found except this foreigner to return and give glory to God?”
- Revelation 14:7
And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea…
- Psalms 69:22
May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap.
- Psalms 81:11–12
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Luke 17:18
Through
Jeremiah 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.
it leads to
- Isaiah 22:4
Therefore 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.”
- Jeremiah 8:21–22
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
- Lamentations 2:11
My 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…
- Isaiah 22:4
Through
Jeremiah 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,…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:21
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
- Jeremiah 8:21
Where this verse is studied
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About Jeremiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1748: “Jehovah Has Spoken—will You Not Hear?” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 12.