Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:19
My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks to Judah at the moment of impending invasion, immediately after declaring that their own ways have brought divine judgment upon them. His proclamation occurs during a sequence of escalating national disasters that strip the land of its security.
The words — The Hebrew מְעַי (me'a) denotes the inward parts or bowels, repeated twice to emphasize visceral anguish. The phrase לִבִּי הֹמֶה (libbi homeh) literally describes the heart as being in turmoil or pounding.
The thread — This visceral reaction to divine warning echoes Habakkuk 3:16, where hearing God's word causes trembling, and mirrors the lament patterns of Isaiah 16:11 and Isaiah 22:4 over impending destruction. The motif of inescapable internal distress from external calamity threads through prophetic literature.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that spiritual rebellion produces concrete, inescapable consequences that disrupt both physical safety and inner stability. It requires the reader to stop rationalizing or silencing the warning before the announced catastrophe arrives.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Cross-references
- Habakkuk 3:16 I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.
- Isaiah 16:11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.
- 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.”
- Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Jeremiah 9:1 Oh, 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.
- Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Psalms 116:7 Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
- Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- Lamentations 3:48 Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Daniel 7:15 I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, and the visions in my mind alarmed me.