---
title: "Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 89 of 89
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/89/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1, section 89. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/89/"
---

# Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on Jeremiah and Lamentations, volume 1 of 5.

## 89. Chapter 9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/89/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/89/#p-N

[¶0] 1 Who will make my head waters And mine eye a fountain of tears! Then would I bewail, day and night, The slain of the daughter of my people.

[¶1] 2 Who will set me in the desert, In the lodging of travelers! Then would I leave my people And depart from them: For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of perfidious men.

[¶2] 3 And they shoot lies with their tongue as with a bow; But not for truth are they strong in the land; For from evil to evil they proceed; (1:462) And me they know not, saith Jehovah.

[¶3] 4 And every one of his friend take ye heed, And in a brother trust ye not; For every brother by supplanting will supplant, And every friend walks fraudulently:

[¶4] 5 And a man deceives his neighbor, And the truth he speaks not; They have taught their tongues to speak falsehood; With doing evil they weary themselves.

[¶5] 6 Thou dwellest in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse To know me, saith Jehovah. (1:469)

[¶6] 7 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Behold, I will try them, and will prove them; For how should I deal With the daughter of my people?

[¶7] 8 A sharpened arrow is their tongue, Falsehood it speaks; His mouth speaks peace to his neighbor, But within he sets up intrigues.

[¶8] 9 For this shall I not visit, saith Jehovah, On such a nation as this Shall not my soul be avenged?

[¶9] 10 For the mountains will I raise up weeping and wailing, For the pastures of the wilderness, lamentation; Because they are laid waste, So that there is not a man passing through, And they hear not the voice of cattle; From the bird of heaven to the beast. Have they fled, have they departed. (1:475)

[¶10] 11 I will also make Jerusalem heaps, A place for dragons; And the cities of Judah will I make a waste, So that there shall be no inhabitant.

[¶11] 12 Who is a wise man to understand this? And to whom has Jehovah’s mouth spoken, That he may declare why the land is to perish — Is to be laid waste like the desert, So that no man should pass through? (1:480)

[¶12] 13 Then Jehovah said, — Because they have forsaken my law, Which I have set before them, And hearkened not to my voice, Nor walked according to it;

[¶13] 14 But walked after the imaginations Of their own hearts, and after Baalim, As their fathers taught them;

[¶14] 15 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, The God of Israel, — Behold, I will feed this people with bitterness, And will give them the water of gall to drink;

[¶15] 16 I will also scatter them among the nations, Whom they have not known nor their fathers, And I will send after them the sword, Until I shall have consumed them.

[¶16] 17 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Attend ye and call for the mourning women, That they may come, And send for those who are skillful, That they may come.

[¶17] 18 And let them hasten and make a wailing for us, That our eyes may let fall tears, And our eyelids drop down waters. (1:489)

[¶18] 19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Sion, “How we are wasted! How greatly shamed! Because we have left the land, They have cast down our dwellings.”

[¶19] 20 Therefore hear, ye women, the word of Jehovah, And let your ears receive the word of his mouth, And teach your daughters wailing, And each one her friend lamentation:

[¶20] 21 For come up is death to our windows, It has entered into our palaces, To cut off the infirm from the street, The young men in the broad places. (1:493)

[¶21] 22 Speak, thus saith Jehovah, fall shall the carcasses of men As dung on the face of the field, And as the handful after the reaper, And none gathering it.

[¶22] 23 Thus saith Jehovah, — Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, And let not the brave glory in his courage, Let not the rich glory in his riches;

[¶23] 24 But in this let him glory who glorieth, In understanding, and in knowing me, That I am Jehovah, who doeth mercy, Judgment and righteousness in the land; For in these things I delight, saith Jehovah. (1:502)

[¶24] 25 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, That I will visit every one circumcised, Who is in uncircumcision, —

[¶25] 26 Egypt and Judah and Edom, The sons of Ammon and Moab, And all those who are in extreme recesses, Who dwell in the wilderness; For all these nations are uncircumcised, And the whole house of Israel, They are uncircumcised in heart.