Jeremiah 6:24

We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) We have heard the fame.—Another dramatic impersonation of the cry of terror from the dwellers in Jerusalem, when they shall hear of the approach of the army. The imagery of the woman in travail is reproduced from Jeremiah 4:31.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:18-30 God rejects their outward services, as worthless to atone for their sins. Sacrifice and incense were to direct them to a Mediator; but when offered to purchase a license to go on in sin, they provoke God. The sins of God's professing people make them an easy prey to their enemies. They dare not show themselves. Saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise: sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings. They are the worst of revolters, and are all corrupters. Sinners soon become tempters. They are compared to ore supposed to have good metal in it, but which proves all dross. Nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins. Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless. When warnings, corrections, rebukes, and all means of grace, leave men unrenewed, they will be left, as rejected of God, to everlasting misery. Let us pray, then, that we may be refined by the Lord, as silver is refined.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The effect upon the Jewish people of the news of Nebuchadnezzars approach.

Wax feeble - Are relaxed. It is the opposite of what is said in Jeremiah 6:23 of the enemy, "They lay hold etc." Terror makes the hands of the Jews hold their weapons with nerveless grasp.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. fame thereof—the report of them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble. The prophet personates the people’s affections: q.d. At the very report of the. approach and fierceness of this people we are dismayed and discouraged, our hearts melt within us; all warlike courage is taken from us, 2 Samuel 4:1; or he modestly reckons himself among the rest.

Anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail; a description of the exquisiteness of their sufferings, Jeremiah 13:21.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

We have heard the fame thereof,.... Meaning not the prophet's report then, but the rumour of the enemy's coming from another quarter, at the time he was actually coming. These are the words of the people, upon such a rumour spread; or the words of the prophet, joining himself with them, describing their case, when it would be strongly reported, and they had reason to believe it, that the enemy was just coming, and very near:

our hands wax feeble; have no strength in them, shake and tremble like men that have a palsy, through fear and dread:

anguish hath taken hold of us; tribulation or affliction; or rather anguish of spirit, on hearing the news of the near approach of the enemy:

and pain, as of a woman in travail; which comes suddenly, and is very sharp; and this denotes that their destruction would come suddenly upon them, before they were aware, and be very severe.

Geneva Study Bible

We have heard the report of it: our hands become {t} feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

(t) For fear of the enemy: he speaks this in the person of the Jews.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. Jeremiah is here the mouthpiece of his fellow-countrymen on the arrival of the news.

fame] i.e. report.

wax feeble] lit. sink down. Cp. Isaiah 5:24.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - We have heard the fame thereof. The prophet identifies himself (comp., for the same phenomenon, Jeremiah 4:19-21; Jeremiah 10:19, 20) with his people, and expresses the general feeling of anxiety and pain. The phraseology of the closing lines reminds us of Isaiah 13:7, 8. Jeremiah 6:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A distant, cruel people will execute the judgment, since Judah, under the trial, has proved to be worthless metal. - Jeremiah 6:22. "Thus hath Jahveh said: Behold, a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great nation raises itself from the furthermost sides of the earth. Jeremiah 6:23. Bows and javelins they bear; cruel it is, and they have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and on horses they ride, equipped as a man for the war against thee, daughter of Zion. Jeremiah 6:24. We heard the rumour thereof: weak are our hands: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Jeremiah 6:25. Go not forth into the field, and in the way walk not; for a sword hath the enemy, fear is all around. Jeremiah 6:26. O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and besprinkle thee with ashes; make mourning for an only son, butter lamentation: for suddenly shall the spoiler come upon us. Jeremiah 6:27. For a trier have I set thee among my people as a strong tower, that thou mightest know and try their way. Jeremiah 6:28. They are all revolters of revolters; go about as slanderers; brass and iron; they are all dealing corruptingly. Jeremiah 6:29. Burned are the bellows by the fire, at an end is the lead; in vain they melt and melt; and wicked ones are not separated. Jeremiah 6:30. Rejected silver they call them, for Jahveh hath rejected them."

In Jeremiah 6:22 the stumbling-blocks of Jeremiah 6:21 are explained. At the end of this discourse yet again the invasion of the enemy from the far north is announced, cf. Jeremiah 4:13 and Jeremiah 5:15, and its terribleness is portrayed with new colours. The farther the land is from which the enemy comes, the more strange and terrible he appears to the imagination. The farthest (hindmost) sides of the earth (cf. Jeremiah 25:32) is only a heightening of the idea: land of the north, or of the far distance (Jeremiah 5:15); in other words, the far uttermost north (cf. Isaiah 14:13). In this notice of their home, Hitz. finds a proof that the enemies were the Scythians, not the Chaldeans; since, acc. to Ezekiel 38:6, Ezekiel 38:15, and Ezekiel 39:2, Gog, i.e., The Scythians, come "from the sides of the north." But "sides of the earth" is not a geographical term for any particular northern country, but only for very remote lands; and that the Chaldeans were reckoned as falling within this term, is shown by the passage Jeremiah 31:8, according to which Israel is to be gathered again from the land of the north and from the sides of the earth. Here any connection with Scythia in "sides of the earth" is not to be thought of, since prophecy knows nothing of a captivity of Israel in Scythia, but regards Assur and Babylon alone as the lands of the exile of Israelites and Jews. As weapons of the enemy then are mentioned bows (cf. Jeremiah 4:29; Jeremiah 5:16), and the javelin or lance (כּידון, not shield; see on 1 Samuel 17:6). It is cruel, knows no pity, and is so numerous and powerful, that its voice, i.e., the tumult of its approach, is like the roaring of the sea; cf. Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 17:12. On horses they ride; cf. Jeremiah 4:13; Jeremiah 8:16; Habakkuk 1:8. ערוּך in the singular, answering to "cruel it is," points back to גּוי or כּאישׁ . is not for כּאישׁ אחד (Ros.), but for כּאישׁ מלחמה, cf. 1 Samuel 17:33; Isaiah 42:13; and the genitive is omitted only because of the למלחמה coming immediately after (Graf). "Against thee" is dependent on ערוּך: equipped as a warrior is equipped for the war, against the daughter of Zion. In Jeremiah 6:24-26 are set forth the terrors and the suspense which the appearance of the foe will spread abroad. In Jeremiah 6:24 the prophet, as a member of the people, gives utterance to its feelings. As to the sense, the clauses are to be connected thus: As soon as we hear the rumour of the people, i.e., of its approach, our hands become feeble through dread, all power to resist vanishes: cf. Isaiah 13:7; and for the metaphor of travail, Isaiah 13:8; Micah 4:9, etc. In v. 28 the inhabitants of Jerusalem, personified as the daughter of Zion, are warned not to go forth of the city into the field or about the country, lest they fall into the enemies' hands and be put to death. מגור מסּביב, often used by Jeremiah, cf. Jeremiah 20:3, Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 46:5; Jeremiah 49:29, and, as Jeremiah 20:10 shows, taken from Psalm 31:14. Fear or terrors around, i.e., on all sides danger and destruction threaten.