Jeremiah 18:16
◄  Jeremiah 18:16  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Therefore, their land will become desolate, a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will shake their heads in amazement.

English Standard Version (©2001)
making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
To make their land a desolation, An object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
They have made their land a horror, a perpetual object of scorn; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and shake his head.

International Standard Version (©2012)
They make their land into a desolate place, an object of lasting scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.

NET Bible (©2006)
So their land will become an object of horror. People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Their land will become desolate and something to be hissed at forever. Everyone who will pass by it will be stunned and shake his head.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shake his head.

American King James Version
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.

American Standard Version
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

Douay-Rheims Bible
That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.

Darby Bible Translation
to make their land an astonishment, a perpetual hissing: every one that passeth by shall be astonished, and shake his head.

English Revised Version
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

Webster's Bible Translation
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and wag his head.

World English Bible
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

Young's Literal Translation
To make their land become a desolation, A hissing age-during, Every passer by it is astonished, And bemoaneth with his head.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:11-17 Sinners call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts, is the very worst slavery. They forsook God for idols. When men are parched with heat, and meet with cooling, refreshing streams, they use them. In these things men will not leave a certainty for an uncertainty; but Israel left the ancient paths appointed by the Divine law. They walked not in the highway, in which they might travel safely, but in a way in which they must stumble: such was the way of idolatry, and such is the way of iniquity. This made their land desolate, and themselves miserable. Calamities may be borne, if God smile upon us when under them; but if he is displeased, and refuses his help, we are undone. Multitudes forget the Lord and his Christ, and wander from the ancient paths, to walk in ways of their own devising. But what will they do in the day of judgment!

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - The effect of this is to make the land of the transgressors an object of horror and astonishment (so render rather than desolate).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

To make their land desolate,.... Not that this was the intention either of those that led them out of the right way into those wrong paths, or of them that went into them; but so it was eventually; this was the issue of things; their idolatry and other sins were the cause of their land being desolate; through the ravage of the enemy, let in upon them by way of judgment; and through the destruction of men by them; so that there were few or none to cultivate and manure it:

and a perpetual hissing; to be hissed at perpetually by the enemy, whenever they passed by it, and observed its desolation; thereby expressing their hatred at its inhabitants; their joy at its desolation; and their satisfaction in it, which would be for ever; or, as Kimchi interprets, a long time. This is the present case of the Jews; and has been ever since their destruction by the Romans; and will be until the fulness of the Gentiles is gathered in:

everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished: to see the desolations made, and the strange alterations in a place once so famous for fruitfulness and number of inhabitants:

and wag his head; either out of pity, or rather in a way of derision and exultation; see Lamentations 2:15.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. hissing—(1Ki 9:8). In sign of contempt. That which was to be only the event is ascribed to the purpose of the people, although altogether different from what they would have been likely to hope for. Their purpose is represented as being the destruction of their country, because it was the inevitable result of their course of acting.

wag … head—in mockery (2Ki 19:21; Mt 27:39). As "wag … head" answers to "hissing," so "astonished" answers to "desolate," for which, therefore, Munster and others rather translate, "an object of wonder" (Jer 19:8).

Jeremiah 18:16 Parallel Commentaries

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The Potter and the Clay
…15Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; 16To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Leviticus 26:32 I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.
1 Kings 9:8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?'
Psalm 22:7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
Psalm 109:25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
Isaiah 37:22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: "Virgin Daughter Zion despises and mocks you. Daughter Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.
Jeremiah 19:8 I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds.
Jeremiah 25:9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD, "and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin.
Jeremiah 42:18 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.'
Jeremiah 44:12 I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach.
Jeremiah 48:27 Was not Israel the object of your ridicule? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head in scorn whenever you speak of her?
Jeremiah 49:13 I swear by myself," declares the LORD, "that Bozrah will become a ruin and a curse, an object of horror and reproach; and all its towns will be in ruins forever."
Jeremiah 49:17 "Edom will become an object of horror; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds.