For Yahweh says: “We have heard a voice of trembling; a voice of fear, and not of peace.
Parallel Translations
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For Yahweh says: “We have heard a voice of trembling; a voice of fear, and not of peace.
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For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
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For thus saith the LORD: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 30:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 5:30 They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
- Zephaniah 1:10-11 In that day, says Yahweh, there will be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, a wailing from the second quarter, and a great crashing from the hills. Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.
- Luke 19:41-44 When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
- Isaiah 59:11 We all roar like bears and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far off from us.
- Jeremiah 4:15-20 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim: “Tell the nations, behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah. As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’ ” says Yahweh. “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.” My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.
- Jeremiah 6:23-25 They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.” We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor. Don’t go out into the field or walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror are on every side.
- Jeremiah 8:19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: “Isn’t Yahweh in Zion? Isn’t her King in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign idols?”
- Jeremiah 9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”
- Jeremiah 25:36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the leader of the flock, for Yahweh destroys their pasture.
- Jeremiah 31:15-16 Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
- Jeremiah 46:5 Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and are turned backward. Their mighty ones are beaten down, have fled in haste, and don’t look back. Terror is on every side,” says Yahweh.
- Amos 5:16-18 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing. In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the middle of you,” says Yahweh. “Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.
- Luke 21:25-26 There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
- Luke 23:29-30 For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to tell the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and tell the hills, ‘Cover us.’
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Now he says, Thus saith Jehovah, A cry, or,…
Now he says, Thus saith Jehovah, A cry, or, the voice of trembling, or of fear, have we heard. The word חרדה, cherede, is thought to mean properly that dread which makes the whole body to tremble, and is therefore rendered trembling. God speaks, and yet in the person of the people. Why? In order to expose their insensibility; for as they were obstinate in their wickedness, so they were not terrified by threatenings, however many and dreadful. God dictated words for them, for they were altogether void of feeling. We now see why God assumed the person of those who were secure, though Jeremiah daily represented to them God’s vengeance as near at hand. The meaning is, that though the people were asleep in their sins, and thought themselves beyond the reach of danger, even when God was displeased with them, yet the threatenings by which God sought to lead them to repentance would not be in vain. Hence God says, We have heard the voice of fear; that is, “Deride and scoff as you please, or remain insensible in your delusions, so as to disregard as the drunken what is said, being destitute of feeling, reason, and memory, yet God will extort from you this confession, this voice of trembling and fear.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He showeth that before that this deliverance shall come,…
He showeth that before that this deliverance shall come, the Chaldeans should be extremely afflicted by their enemies, and that they should be in such perplexity and sorrow as a woman in her travail, as Isa. 13:8.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 30:5 For thus saith the LORD; We have…
Jer 30:5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Ver. 5. We have heard a voice of trembling.] We were at first in a pitiful plight, scil., when the city was taken and the temple burnt (and this is elegantly here set forth, and in the two next verses); but better times are at hand:
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“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur. ”
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain God here speaketh, but whether personating other nations or…
God here speaketh, but whether personating other nations or the Jewish nation is not agreed, nor yet whether this text refers to the times of the Messiah, when the nations should tremble, or the time when Darius invaded Babylon, or the times of Gog and Magog, (of which read Eze 38) or the time when the Chaldeans invaded Judah: this last seemeth most probable, and that God by this intended only to rouse the Jews out of their security, and put them off from expecting peace according to the flatteries of the false prophets, assuring them that the times that were coming next were not times of peace, but such as should make them tremble.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For thus saith the Lord,.... Yet what follows are…
For thus saith the Lord,.... Yet what follows are the words of others; wherefore some supply it, "for thus saith the Lord, the nations shall say" (p); so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it as what the Gentiles will say in the times of the Messiah; but it might be better supplied, "ye shall say"; that is, Israel and Judah; to whom the words of the Lord are spoken in Jer 30:3; or else the Lord here represents his people, saying:
we have heard a voice of trembling, ear, and not of peace; which is to be understood, of the fear and dread injected into them by the Babylonians when they besieged their city, and burned that, and their temple; nor of the fear and dread which came upon the Babylonians at the taking of their city by Cyrus, upon which followed the deliverance of the Jews. Kimchi interprets this of something yet future, the war of Gog and Magog, which he supposes wilt be when their Messiah comes; and Jarchi sans it is so understood in their Midrash Agadah. This distress, I think, refers to the slaying of the witnesses, and to that hour of temptation which shall come upon all the earth to try the inhabitants of it; and which will be followed with the destruction of antichrist; and that will make way for the call and conversion of the Jews.
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(p) "Gentes dicturae sunt", Vatablus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. We have heard a voice of trembling]…
Verse 5. We have heard a voice of trembling] This may refer to the state and feelings of the people during the war which Cyrus carried on against the Babylonians. Trembling and terror would no doubt affect them, and put an end to peace and all prosperity; as they could not tell what would be the issue of the struggle, and whether their state would be better or worse should their present masters fall in the conflict. This is well described in the next verse, where men are represented as being, through pain and anguish, like women in travail. See the same comparison Isa 13:6-8.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Better, as in the margin. The prophet places his…
Better, as in the margin. The prophet places his hearers in the center of Babylon, and describes it as convulsed with terror as the armies of Cyrus draw near. The voice of trembling is the war-cry of the advancing host: while fear and no peace implies that even among the exiles there is only alarm at the prospect of the city, where they had so long dwelt, being destroyed.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain We. Jeremias is ordered to express the alarms of…
We. Jeremias is ordered to express the alarms of the captives, at the news of the destruction of Jerusalem, or rather of the Chaldean empire, by Cyrus. They were naturally afraid that they would also suffer.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain We have heard . . . trembling--God introduces the…
We have heard . . . trembling--God introduces the Jews speaking that which they will be reduced to at last in spite of their stubbornness. Threat and promise are combined: the former briefly; namely, the misery of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity down to their "trembling" and "fear" arising from the approach of the Medo-Persian army of Cyrus against Babylon; the promise is more fully dwelt on; namely, their "trembling" will issue in a deliverance as speedy as is the transition from a woman's labor pangs to her joy at giving birth to a child (Jer 30:6).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain JUDGMENT ON THE NATIONS, Jer_30:4-7.
JUDGMENT ON THE NATIONS, Jer_30:4-7.
5. A voice of trembling, etc. — This comforting prophecy has a most dramatic beginning. This verse seems to be located in the very darkest hour of their national night. The excitement and alarm consequent on the approach of the Medo-Persian army is here depicted. Though this coming was to work deliverance, yet at the first it produces only fear and apprehension.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. We have heard … of peace] Jehovah is…
5. We have heard … of peace] Jehovah is quoting the words of consternation which He hears the people uttering; but more probably the words “Thus saith the Lord” are the insertion of a scribe, and it is really the people who are speaking.
of fear, and not of peace] mg. (better) there is fear, and no peace.
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5–22. See introd. note to section. For a parallel in the character of the description in Jer_30:5-11, Dr. compares Isa_13:6-15 (the overthrow of Babylon) followed by Isa_14:1 f. (the deliverance of Israel); also Isa_24:14-15; Isa_24:23; Isa_25:1-5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5, 6) Thus saith the Lord; We have heard…
(5, 6) Thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling . . .—There is a strange mingling of the divine and human elements in these words. The prophet speaks with the sense that the words are not his own, and yet what he utters is, at first, the expression of his own horror and astonishment at the vision of woe that is opening before his eyes. He sees, as it were, the famine-stricken people, their faces gathering blackness, the strong men giving way to a woman’s anguish, wailing with their hands on their loins. In horror rather than in scorn, he asks the question, What means all this? Are these men in the pangs of childbirth? (Comp. Jer_4:31; Jer_6:24; Jer_13:21.) In Lam_2:19-22 we have a fuller picture of a like scene. By some commentators the three verses (5-7) are referred to the alarm caused in Babylon by the advance of Cyrus, and “that day” is the day of his capture of the city, but there seems no sufficient reason for such an interpretation.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 5-11. The great judgment of Israel"s deliverance. It…
Vers. 5-11. The great judgment of Israel"s deliverance. It is nothing less than the "day of Jehovah" which the prophet sees in spirit a day which is "great" (ver. 7; comp. Joe_2:11 Zep_1:14) and terrible (vers. 5, 6; comp. Amo_5:18, 20 Isa_13:6 Joe_2:1, Joe_2:11) for Israel, a day of "trouble" (ver. 7), but for his enemies of destruction.
A voice of trembling; rather, a sound of trembling, a sound causing men to tremble; doubtless it is "the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war". (Jer_4:19) Of fear, and not of peace; rather, there is fear, and no peace. "Peace," as usual, means the harmony of a well ordered, secure, and peaceful community. Literally, it is wholeness; its opposite is "breaking," i.e. outward ruin and inward anguish.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.