Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words." — Jeremiah 23:9 (ASV)
My heart within me is broken ... — The abrupt transition shows that we are entering an entirely new section. In the Hebrew order and punctuation of the words, this is shown still more clearly — Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me — the first words being the superscription and title of what follows.
The four clauses describe the varied phenomena of horror and amazement. Then comes the cause of the horror — the contrast between the words of Jehovah and His holiness on the one side, and the wickedness of priests and prophets on the other.
The whole section is the complement of that which denounced the wickedness of the pastors — i.e., of the civil rulers — in Jeremiah 23:1-4.