What were the hidden places where Jeremiah shed tears for God’s fallen flock?

What are these hidden places but the inner depths of the Lord Christ, the Lover of mankind? The soul that enters these cannot cease to weep for the salvation of the whole

568 W. W. Wiersbe, Treasury of the World’s Great Sermons (Kregel Academic & Professional, 1993): pp. 131–132.

569 St. Basil of Caesarea, Letters 243.3 (NPNF II/8:285).

570 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Statues 2.7 (NPNF I/9:346).

world. The apostle Paul entered these hidden places, and wrote, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know that love which I have so abundantly for you” (2 Cor. 2:4).

The scholar Origen believes that Jeremiah wept in hidden places because the leaders and rulers hid the prophecies that testify to the Lord Christ, so that the people were left in darkness instead of light. He says, “ But if you will not hear in a hidden way, your soul cries out from the face of insult (Jer. 13:16–17). Among those who hear, some hear in a hidden way, others, even if they hear, do not hear in a hidden way. So what is it to hear in a hidden way other than what is said: But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory? (1 Cor. 2:7). And again in another place it is said that most of the works of God are in secret things (Sir. 16:21). If I hear the Law, either I hear in a hidden way or I do not hear in a hidden way. The Jew does not hear the Law in a hidden way. Because of this he is circumcised outwardly, for he does not know that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something outward in the flesh (Rom. 2:28). But he who hears of circumcision in a hidden way will be circumcised in secret (Rom. 2:29).”⁵⁷¹

571 Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Jeremiah 12.13 (FOTC 97:126).