Bible Strands
Jeremiah 8:21
For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah addresses Judah immediately after declaring that the harvest has passed and summer ended without salvation. He speaks as a prophet who has witnessed the nation's unrepentant trajectory and now voices his direct response to their impending ruin.
The words — שֶ֥בֶר (shever) literally means "brokenness" or "shattering," and הָשְׁבָּ֑רְתִּי (hasheberti) translates as "I have been broken." The text states the prophet's physical and emotional crushing as a direct result of the people's condition.
The thread — The pattern of seized horror and national desolation appears in Jeremiah 14:17, Joel 2:6, and Nahum 2:10. Each passage records a similar sequence where divine judgment produces terror and ruin that physically and emotionally overwhelm the afflicted.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that unaddressed spiritual brokenness produces genuine, inescapable grief in the messenger. It demands recognition that the prophet's mourning and seized horror are the necessary, observable consequences of national unrepentance.
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
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 14:17 You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.
- Joel 2:6 Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.
- Nahum 2:10 She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!
- Psalms 137:3 for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
- Song of Solomon 1:5 I am dark, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
- 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.
- 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.
- Luke 19:41 As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
- Romans 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.
- Nehemiah 2:3 and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”