Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 18:16

"to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head." — Jeremiah 18:16 (ASV)

Desolate ... astonished. —A better translation is desolate in both clauses. The Hebrew verb is the same, and there is a manifest emphasis in the repetition which is better to reproduce in English.

A perpetual hissing. —The Hebrew word is onomatopoetic and expresses the inarticulate sounds we utter when we see anything that makes us shudder, rather than “hissing” in its modern use as an expression of contempt or disapproval.

Wag his head. —A better translation is shake his head. The verb is not the same as the one that describes the gesture of scorn in Psalms 22:7; Psalms 109:25; Lamentations 2:15; and Zephaniah 2:15, and describes pity or bemoaning rather than contempt. People would not mock the desolation of Israel, but would gaze on it astounded and pitying, themselves also desolate.