Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 10:19-25

"Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it. My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals. O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure: not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation." — Jeremiah 10:19-25 (ASV)

The lamentation of the daughter of Zion, the Jewish Church, at the devastation of the land, and her humble prayer to God for mercy (Jeremiah 10:19).

Grievous – Rather, "mortal," that is, fatal, incurable.

A grief – Or, "my grief."

(Jeremiah 10:20) tabernacle – that is, "tent." Jerusalem laments that her tent is plundered and her children carried into exile, and so are not (Matthew 2:18)—they are dead, either absolutely, or dead to her in the remote land of their captivity. They can no longer aid the widowed mother in pitching her tent or in hanging up the curtains around it.

(Jeremiah 10:21) Therefore they shall not prosper – Rather, "therefore they have not governed wisely." "The pastors," that is, the kings and rulers (Jeremiah 2:8), having sunk to the condition of barbarous and untutored men, could not govern wisely.

(Jeremiah 10:22) The "great commotion" is the confused noise of the army on its march .

Dragons – that is, jackals; see the marginal reference.

(Jeremiah 10:23) At the rumor of the enemy’s approach, Jeremiah utters in the name of the nation a supplication appropriate for those overtaken by divine justice.

(Jeremiah 10:24) With judgment – In Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28, the word "judgment" (with a different preposition) is rendered in measure. The contrast, therefore, is between punishment inflicted in anger and that inflicted as a duty of justice, whose object is the criminal’s reformation.

Jeremiah prays that God would punish Jacob only to the extent that it would bring him to true repentance, but that He would pour forth His anger upon the pagan, as upon that which opposes itself to God (Jeremiah 10:25).