ש (Sin/Shin)
1:21 They have heard that I groan,
yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have brought it about.
Bring about the day of judgment that you promised
so that they may end up like me!

ת (Tav)
1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you;
afflict them
just as you have afflicted me
because of all my acts of rebellion.
For my groans are many,
and my heart is sick with sorrow.

This verse raises the question of how we are to react when we suffer as a result of our own wrongdoing.

Paul Tautges writes:

‘The cause of Jeremiah’s deepest sorrow…is his realization that Judah herself is to blame for what has happened: “Jerusalem sinned grievously” (1:8), and the Lord has afflicted her “for the multitude of her transgressions” (v. 5). God’s city is personified as a woman who testifies, “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word” (v. 18) and then prays, “My heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. . . . You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions” (vv. 20, 22). Her deep-seated rebellion, pride, and stubbornness caused her ruin. Now all blame-shifting is gone. Her true brokenness over her sin leads to repentance.

Jeremiah shows that we can remember the mercy of God even when we are the cause of our pain. He chooses to “call to mind” the “steadfast love of the Lord,” which, in turn, enables him to say from the heart, “Therefore I have hope” (3:21–22). “The steadfast love of the Lord” is Sometimes translated “the Lord’s lovingkindnesses” (NASB), from the plural form of the Hebrew word chesed. In the Old Testament, it’s the closest equivalent to the New Testament concept of grace.

When Jeremiah refers to God’s “mercies,” he uses a word related to the Hebrew word for womb that communicates tender care and affection. Yahweh’s grace and tender care “never come to an end; they are new every morning” (3:22–23). Not “new” in the sense that they never existed before but “new” in the sense that they are refreshed each day. The same God who loved you yesterday loves you today. And when you got out of bed this morning, he stood ready to supply you with all the mercy you will need.

When we have brought trouble on ourselves, we may be tempted to get stuck in grief or grow bitter over the ways that sin has tricked us and stolen from us. But heartfelt repentance is more profitable than self-loathing. When God employs the effects of our sin to chasten us, it is because he wishes to restore us.’