Jehovah came in to correct His hypocritical worshippers, and Jeremiah reacted to Jehovah’s correction of Israel (Jer. 8:18-19, 21-22; 9:1-2; 10:19-25). The prophet’s reaction was very tender, sympathetic, and compassionate.

According to this book, God’s love is a composition of His tender care, compassion, and sympathy. Even while He chastises His elect people Israel, He is compassionate toward them (Lam. 3:22-23). In His chastising of Israel, God can be compared to a father who weeps as he disciplines his child because he loves the child. In this book Jeremiah wept on God’s behalf; his weeping expressed God’s feeling. We may say that God wept within Jeremiah’s weeping, for in his weeping Jeremiah was one with God. Because Jeremiah often wept (Jer. 13:17; Lam. 2:11; 3:48), even wailed, he is called the weeping prophet.

The words in vv. 10-11. 17-19 express Jehovah’s feeling concerning Israel’s suffering of His correction. Although Jehovah was punishing Israel, He was still sympathetic toward them. See note Jer. 9:18¹.

Lit., it.

The words us and our here indicate that Jehovah joined Himself to the suffering people and was one with them in their suffering. The sympathetic God who punished was also among His punished people. Eventually, those who wailed were wailing not only for Israel but also for Jehovah. Jehovah Himself was weeping in sympathy for His people. Cf. note Jer. 9:1¹.

Israel had been circumcised physically, on their body (Josh. 5:2-9), but not psychologically, in their inner being, in their heart (Jer. 4:4a; Acts 7:51; cf. Rom. 2:28-29; Phil. 3:3).