Jeremiah 4:18
in Jeremiah 4“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reacheth unto thy heart.
KJV
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
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This verse in Jeremiah 4
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
his chariots like the whirlwind
on Jeremiah 4:13-18
The invader is pictured by speed alone, clouds, whirlwind and horses “swifter than eagles”. The call “Wash the evil from your heart” answers verse 4. The besiegers “surround her like men guarding a field”, and the Hebrew verb for guarding is the one used of shepherds keeping a flock.
This site's exposition
Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you
Judah's own ways and deeds brought the siege, and the punishment grew out of them. The bitterness pierces to the heart. Gill allows that the cry in the next verse may be the people's own, their heart reached, though he prefers to hear the prophet.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 18.) Your ways and thoughts have brought these things upon you: your wickedness, because it is bitter, has reached your heart. It makes an apostrophe to the city of Jerusalem, that her ways and thoughts, by which she sinned in both deed and word, have caused all these things to come upon her: and her own wickedness, which is inherently bitter, has touched her heart and penetrated her innermost being. Whatever happens to us, happens because of our own fault, as we turn a sweet Lord into bitterness and force Him to be unwillingly harsh.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
): " This is thy wickedness because it is bitter. Now thou seest that it is a bitter thing to depart from God, and will certainly be bitterness in the latter end, ch. ii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee,....
To affect them the more with the greatness of the desolation that was coming, the prophet does himself bitterly lament it, and sympathize with his people in the calamities it brought upon them, and the plunge it brought them to, representing it as a reduction of the world to its first chaos,
Note, Sin is the procuring cause of all our troubles. Those that go on in sin while they are endeavouring to ward off mischiefs with one hand are at the same time pulling them upon their own heads with the other. God was angry with them for their sin.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thy wickedness - This siege is thy wickedness, i. e., in its results; or better, this is thy wretchedness, this army and thy approaching ruin is thy misery. Because - “For.” To feel that one’s misery is the result of one’s own doings adds bitterness to the anguish, and makes it reach, penetrate to the heart.
The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דַּרְכֵּךְ֙ | darkekh | conduct your | H1870 → | 707 times |
| וּמַ֣עֲלָלַ֔יִךְ | umaalalayikh | and deeds your | H4611 → | 41 times |
| עָשׂ֥וֹ | aso | they have brought about | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| אֵ֖לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| לָ֑ךְ | lakh | to <the> you | ||
| זֹ֤את | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| רָעָתֵךְ֙ | raatekh | [is] wickedness your | H7451 → | 662 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| מָ֔ר | mar | it is bitter | H4843 → | |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| נָגַ֖ע | naga' | it has reached | H5060 → | 150 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| לִבֵּֽךְ׃ ס | libekh | heart your | H3820 → | 595 times |
דַּרְכֵּךְ֙conduct your
darkekhH1870 →707 times
וּמַ֣עֲלָלַ֔יִךְand deeds your
umaalalayikhH4611 →41 times
עָשׂ֥וֹthey have brought about
asoH6213 →2628 times
אֵ֖לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →746 times
לָ֑ךְto <the> you
lakh
זֹ֤אתthis
zotH2063 →603 times
רָעָתֵךְ֙[is] wickedness your
raatekhH7451 →662 times
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
מָ֔רit is bitter
marH4843 →
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
נָגַ֖עit has reached
naga'H5060 →150 times
עַד־to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
לִבֵּֽךְ׃ סheart your
libekhH3820 →595 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
Isaiah 50:1This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Jeremiah 3:8
She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.
- Deuteronomy 32:30
Through
Proverbs 1:31So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
it leads to
- Proverbs 14:14
The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways.
- Jeremiah 6:19
Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction.
- Proverbs 22:8
He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- Job 4:8
As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Galatians 6:7–8
Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Proverbs 14:14
Through
Jeremiah 2:17Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 2:19
Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 2:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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.