Jeremiah 31:20

Jeremiah 31:20 [Is] Ephraim my dear son? [is he] a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

Ver. 20. Is Ephraim a dear son? is he a pleasant child? ] q.d., Ay sure he is; and never more dear and pleasant than when thus beblubbered; like as some faces appear most oriently beautiful when they are most enstamped with sorrow. Heb., Is he a child of delight? q.d., He may seem to be otherwise by my hard dealing with him; but so he is assuredly - "Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." Joh 11:3

For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. ] Or, So oft as I speak of him, I am mindful still of him. See Isaiah 49:14 ; Isaiah 49:16 .

Therefore my bowels are troubled for him. ] Perstrepunt viscera mea. My bowels work, as that mother’s did toward her child; 1Ki 3:26 as Croesus’ dumb son’s did, when seeing a fellow ready to kill his father, he burst out into, Kill not king Croesus. a See Hosea 11:8 . See Trapp on " Hos 11:8 "

a Aνθρωπε, υη κτεινε τον Kροισον . - Herod.