Job 30:27
27. bowels—regarded as the seat of deep feeling (Isa 16:11).
boiled—violently heated and agitated. prevented—Old English for "unexpectedly came upon" me, "surprised" me.Isaiah 16:11
11. bowels—in Scripture the seat of yearning compassion. It means the inward seat of emotion, the heart, &c. (Isa 63:15; compare Isa 15:5; Jer 48:36).
sound . . . harp—as its strings vibrate when beaten with the plectrum or hand.Jeremiah 4:19
19. The prophet suddenly assumes the language of the Jewish state personified, lamenting its affliction (Jer 10:19, 20; 9:1, 10; Isa 15:5; compare Lu 19:41).
at my very heart—Hebrew, "at the walls of my heart"; the muscles round the heart. There is a climax, the "bowels," the pericardium, the "heart" itself. maketh . . . noise—moaneth [HENDERSON]. alarm—the battle shout.Jeremiah 31:20
20. Is Ephraim my dear son? &c.—The question implies that a negative answer was to be expected. Who would have thought that one so undutiful to His heavenly Father as Ephraim had been should still be regarded by God as a "pleasant child?" Certainly he was not so in respect to his sin. But by virtue of God's "everlasting love" (Jer 31:3) on Ephraim's being "turned" to God, he was immediately welcomed as God's "dear son." This verse sets forth God's readiness to welcome the penitent (Jer 31:18, 19), anticipating his return with prevenient grace and love. Compare Lu 15:20: "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion," &c.
spake against—threatened him for his idolatry. remember—with favor and concern, as in Ge 8:1; 30:22. bowels . . . troubled for him— (De 32:36; Isa 63:15; Ho 11:8) —namely, with the yearnings of compassionate love. The "bowels" include the region of the heart, the seat of the affections.