Bible Strands
Jeremiah 8:18
My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks on behalf of Judah at a moment of imminent judgment, immediately following the warning that uncharmable vipers will invade the land. His declaration precedes the distant cry questioning God’s presence in Zion, marking the depth of the national crisis.
The words — יָג֑וֹן (ya.Gon) literally means sorrow, and דַוָּֽי (da.Vai) literally means is faint. Together they describe grief that cannot be healed and a heart that has lost its strength.
The thread — The pattern of unhealable grief and physical collapse appears in Isaiah 22:4, Jeremiah 6:24, and Lamentations 1:16. Each passage ties national destruction to a state of exhausted mourning that resists consolation.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that divine judgment produces irreversible sorrow and bodily exhaustion. It requires the reader to confront the reality of ruin without seeking premature comfort.
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
When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
Cross-references
- 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.”
- Jeremiah 6:24 We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.
- Lamentations 1:16 For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
- Lamentations 5:17 Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
- Job 7:13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
- Jeremiah 10:19 Woe to me because of my brokenness; my wound is grievous! But I said, “This is truly my sickness, and I must bear it.”
- Daniel 10:16 And suddenly one with the likeness of a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and said to the one standing before me, “My lord, because of the vision, I am overcome with anguish, and I have no strength.
- 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.