Jeremiah 8:19

Death shall not now be, as it always used to be--the repose of the dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but now the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes, shall be disturbed, and their bones scattered at the grave's mouth, Ps. cxli.

How great his griefs were. He was an eyewitness of the desolations of his country, and saw those things which by the spirit of prophecy he had foreseen. In the foresight, much more in the sight, of them, he cries out, " My heart is faint in me, I sink, I die away at the consideration of it,

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people,....

In the latter half of the verse God replies that their own idolatry, not want of faithfulness on His part, is the cause. because of them that dwell in a far country--rather, "from a land of distances," that is, a distant land (Isa 39:3).

THESE words, as they stand in the book of Jeremiah, were probably meant to set forth the sin of Israel. The Prophet's heart is very full of sadness—he can hear the shrieks and cries of the people in the streets of Jerusalem. They are moaning for sorrow because of the oppression of the Chaldeans—the nation that dwelt afar off. And in the midst of their bitterness and woe they remember the God whom they had forgotten in their prosperity—but this remembrance is not a gracious one. They do not remember Him to humble themselves before Him, but to bring accusations against Him! They enquire, "Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her?" As if they felt, "The people of the Lord, the people of the Lord are we, and therefore He is bound to send us a deliverance." They question the faithfulness of Jehovah because He justly suffers them to be downtrodden for their sins. Then the Lord, speaking by the Prophet, tells them the reason why, although present among them, He did not help them—"Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities?" If they believed Him to be present, why did they set up false gods? If they considered Him to be their God, why did they turn aside to the vanities of the heathen? His Presence among them had been the occasion of greater provocation since they had mocked Him to His face and set up idols in His own temple! In the twentieth verse the Prophet represents the people as breaking forth into another dolorous and lamentable cry, "We thought that God would help us in the days of harvest—but the harvest is past. We dreamed that He would chase away our enemies when the summer months had come—but the summer is ended and still Chaldea has her foot upon Judea's neck—still we drink the wormwood and the gall and our enemies open their mouths at us.