Jeremiah 9:1

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS. This verse is more fitly joined to last chapter, as in the Hebrew (cf. , "I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people;" ; , "Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people")....

He follows the same subject. During times of tranquillity, when nothing but joyful voices were heard among the Jews, he bewails, as one in the greatest grief, the miseries of the people; and being not satisfied with this, he says, _Who will set, _or make, _my head waters, and my eye a fountain of tears? _He intimates by these words, that the ruin would be so dreadful that it could not be bewailed by a moderate or usual lamentation, inasmuch as God’s vengeance would exceed common bounds, and fill men with more dread than other calamities. The meaning is, that the destruction of the people would be so monstrous that it could not be sufficiently bewailed. It hence appears how hardened the Jews had become; for doubtless the Prophet had no delight in such comparisons, as though he wished rhetorically to embellish his discourse; but as he saw that their hearts were inflexible, and that a commo...

1-11 Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, must be a place for temptation and evil; while, with these blessings, we may live in holiness in crowded cities. The people accustomed their tongues to lies. So false were they, that a brother could not be trusted. In trading and bargaining they said any thing for their own advantage, though they knew it to be false. But God marked their sin. Where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? He has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein....

CHAPTER IX _The prophet bitterly laments the terrible judgments about to be_ _inflicted upon his countrymen, and points out some of the evils_ _which have provoked the Divine Majesty_, 1-9. _Judea shall be utterly desolated, and the inhabitants_ _transplanted into heathen countries_, 10-17. _In allusion to an ancient custom, a band of mourning women is_ _called to lament over the ruins of Jerusalem_, 17, 18; _and even the funeral dirge is given in terms full of beauty,_ _elegance, and pathos_, 19-22. God is the fountain of all

This verse is joined in the Hebrew to the preceding chapter. But any break at all here interrupts the meaning. A FOUNTAIN - Rather, “a reservoir,” in which tears had been stored up, so that the prophet might weep abundantly....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 9:1 The Hebrew more correctly attaches this verse to Jeremiah 8:1. OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS, etc.! A quaint conceit, it may be said. But "if we have been going on pace for pace with the passion before, this sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor into something to be actually realized in nature, is strictly and strikingly natural." So Bishop Dearie, quoting, by way of illustration, Shakespeare's 'Richard II.,' "meditating on his own utter annihilation as to royalty:" "Oh that I were a mockery king of snow, To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke!" The tone of complaint continues in the following verse, though the subject is different....

OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS, AND MINE EYES A FOUNTAIN OF TEARS,.... Or, "who will give to my head water, and to mine eyes a fountain of tears?" as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions. The prophet wishes that his head was turned and dissolved into water, and that tears might flow from his eyes as water issues out from a fountain; and he suggests, that could this be, it would not be sufficient to deplore the miserable estate of his people, and to express the inward grief and sorrow of his mind on account of it. THAT I MIGHT WEEP DAY AND NIGHT FOR THE SLAIN OF THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE; the design of all this is to set forth the greatness and horribleness of the destruction, signifying that words were wanting to express it, and tears to lament it; and to awaken the attention of the people to it, who were quite hardened, insensible, and stupid. The Jewish writers close the ei...

Jeremiah 9:1. _Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, then, I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!_ Matthew Henry well observes that, in the Hebrew, the same word signifies «eye» and «fountain», as if God had as much given us eyes to weep with as to see with, as if there were as much cause to sorrow over sin as to look out upon the beauties of the world. Magnificent in its poetry, and most touching in its pathos, is this verse, which ought never to have been cut off from the previous chapter: «Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!» This exposition consisted of readings from Jeremiah 8:1;...

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The prophet's complaint and Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 9:1) _ 2. The cause of desolation and destruction (Jeremiah 9:10) 3. The call for the mourning and wailing women (Jeremiah 9:17) 4. Glorying in the Lord in view of judgment (Jeremiah 9:23) Jeremiah 9:1. Here again is a deplorable break. The opening verses of this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. He is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain. He wish

JEREMIAH 8:18 TO JEREMIAH 9:1. JEREMIAH'S SORROW OVER JUDAH'S SUFFERING. The prophet, in sorrowful sympathy with his people, hears in anticipation the cry of the exiles and Yahweh's answer. They reproach Him with His abandonment of Zion; He points to their idolatry, and introduction of foreign (strange) deities. The people lament (apparently in proverbial form) the disappointment of their hope of deliverance; it is as when the hope of harvest (April-June) has been destroyed, and the failure of the autumn ingathering (Jeremiah 8:20 _mg._) has removed the remaining expectation; they (emph.) have not been rescued from their distress (the reference in saved is to material prosperity, not to a spiritual change). The prophe