Jeremiah 3:25

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) We lie down.—Better, We will lie down—Our confusion shall cover us. The words are those of penitents accepting their punishment: “We chose the shameful thing, therefore let us bear our shame.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:21-25 Sin is turning aside to crooked ways. And forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. By sin we bring ourselves into trouble. The promise to those that return is, God will heal their backslidings, by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his renewing grace. They come devoting themselves to God. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour from any but the Lord. Therefore they come depending upon him only. He is the Lord, and he only can save. It points out the great salvation from sin Jesus Christ wrought out for us. They come justifying God in their troubles, and judging themselves for their sins. True penitents learn to call sin shame, even the sin they have been most pleased with. True penitents learn to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all they suffer. While men harden themselves in sin, contempt and misery are their portion: for he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

We lie down ... - Or, We will lie down: we are ready to throw ourselves upon the ground in bitter humiliation.

Covereth - literally, shall cover us. We will hide our face from others.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. (Ezr 9:7).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We lie down in our shame; we are perplexed and confounded within ourselves; we are such a reproach, both to God and man, that we cannot but lift up our hands for shame, even we, that had once a whore’s forehead, Jeremiah 3:3, but must lie down in our shame; an expression to set forth tho greatness of their repentance and sorrow; as one in great perplexity, not knowing what to do, throws himself down upon his couch or bed, 1 Kings 21:4.

Our confusion covereth us; a metaphor from persons muffled up in the bed-clothes, as ashamed to be seen: the like expression Psalm 44:15.

We and our fathers this notes the universality of their sins, the whole generation of us, like fathers, like children. True confession wraps up our own and others’ sins, Ezra 9:7 Nehemiah 9:33,34 Psa 106:6,7 Jer 14:20, and keeps us from all excuse by others’ examples, 2 Kings 17:41, which gross guilt of theirs in this kind is described Jeremiah 44:17.

From our youth even unto this day: as the former sets forth the universality of their sins, so this the continuance of them, Deu 9:7 2 Kings 17:34,41.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us,.... As persons overwhelmed with a sense of sin, and so pressed with the guilt of it on their consciences, that they can neither stand up, nor look up, but throw themselves on the ground, and cover their faces, being ashamed of what they have done:

for we have sinned against the Lord our God; as by breaking the law of God, so by despising the Gospel; rejecting the ordinances of it; disbelieving the Messiah, and speaking reproachfully of him and his people:

we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day; in a long series of years, from the time that Christ was upon earth, to the day of their conversion, in the latter times of the Gospel dispensation:

and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God; the voice of his forerunner, John the Baptist, of the Messiah himself, and of his apostles, and of his ministers, since; so the Targum,

"and have not obeyed the Word of the Lord our God.''

Christ the essential Word.

Geneva Study Bible

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: {z} for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

(z) They justify not themselves, or say that they would follow their fathers, but condemn their wicked doings and desire forgiveness for the same, as in Ezr 9:7, Ps 106:6, Isa 64:6.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. Let us lie down] Cp. for such a custom as indicative of very painful feelings 2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Samuel 13:31; 1 Kings 21:4.

cover] Cp. Psalm 109:29.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - We lie down; rather, Let us lie down; said in despair, just as Hezekiah says, "Let us enter the gates of Sheol" (Isaiah 38:10). A prostrate position is the natural expression of deep sorrow (2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Samuel 13:31; 1 Kings 21:4). Our confusion covereth us; rather, Let our confusion (or reproach) cover us (like a veil) (comp. Jeremiah 51:51; Psalm 69:7).



Jeremiah 3:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The people does not repudiate this shame and disgrace, but is willing to endure it patiently, since by its sin it has fully deserved it. נשׁכּבה, not: we lie, but: we will lay us down in our shame, as a man in pain and grief throws himself on the ground, or on his couch (cf. 2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Samuel 13:31; 1 Kings 21:4), in order wholly to give way to the feelings that crush him down. And let our disgrace cover us, i.e., enwrap us as a mourning robe or cloak; cf. Psalm 35:26; Psalm 109:29; Micah 7:10, Obadiah 1:10.