8:4–10:25 Review · Treachery, trouble, and tears:“Oh, that . . . my eyes [were] a fountain of tears!” (9:1). It is from such expressions in this section that Jeremiah has been called the weeping prophet. The prophet aches for his people. Trouble will be everywhere, and it will be terrible. Crops will fail; fields and properties will be taken over by strangers; and the dreaded foe from the north will be on the way. Things will never be the same. And the reason is that God’s people have forsaken God’s law (8:9; 9:13). Specifically, they have not repented of their evil. They speak lies, and they prefer wooden self-made idols to the living God. Desolation will come. The emotional outpourings of sorrow are a new dimension in the development of the theme of judgment.

As the book now stands, th…