Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 9

Oh, that my head were waters ...! —Literally, Who will give my head waters ... ? The form of a question was, in Hebrew idiom as in Latin, the natural utterance of desire. In the Hebrew text, this verse comes as the last in Jeremiah 8:0. It is, of course, very closely connected with what precedes; but, on the other hand, it is even more closely connected with what follows. Strictly speaking, there ought to be no break at all, and the discourse should flow on continuously.

A fountain. —Here, as in Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13, and elsewhere, the Hebrew word makor is a tank or réservoir rather than a spring.

Oh, that I had ...! —Literally, as before, Who will give ... ?

A lodging place of wayfaring men. —that is, a place of shelter, a khan or caravanserai, such as were built for travellers, such, e.g., as the inn of Genesis 42:27, the habitation of Chimham (Jeremiah 41:17), which the son of Barzillai had erected near Bethlehem, as an act of munificent gratitude to his adopted country (2 Samuel 19:40). In some such shelter, far from the cities of Judah, the prophet, with a feeling like that of the Psalmist (Psalms 55:6–8) would gladly find refuge from his treacherous enemies—“adulterers,” alike spiritually and literally (Jeremiah 5:8).

Like their bow for lies. —The inserted words turn the boldness of the metaphor into a comparatively tame simile. They bend their tongue to be their bow of lies. The same figure is found in Psalm 57:4; Psalms 58:7; Psalms 64:3.

They are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. —Better, they are not mighty for truth, that is, faithfulness, in the land — that is, they do not rule faithfully. It is not without some regret that we set aside a phrase which has gained something of a proverbial character as applied to the champions of speculative truth or abstract right, but the above gives the true meaning of the Hebrew.

They know not me. —“Know” in the sense of acknowledging and obeying (1 Samuel 2:12; Job 18:21). This was the root evil from which all other evils arose.

Take ye heed ... —The extreme bitterness of the prophet’s words is explained in part by what we read afterwards of his personal history (Jeremiah 12:6; Jeremiah 18:18). Then, as at other times, a man’s foes were those of his own household (Matthew 10:36).

Every brother will utterly supplant. —The word is that which gave the patriarch his significant name of Jacob, the supplanter (Genesis 25:26; Genesis 27:36). Jeremiah seems to say that the people have forfeited their claims to the name of the true Israel. Every brother Israelite is found to be a thoroughgoing Jacob. The adverb “utterly” expresses the force of the Hebrew reduplication of the verb.

Will walk with slanders. —Better, walks a slanderer.

Deceive. —The word is commonly translated, as in the margin, mock. (So in 1 Kings 18:27; Judges 16:10; Judges 16:13; Judges 16:15.) The context here shows, however, that the kind of mockery is that which at once deludes and derides; and as the former meaning is predominant, the text of the English version is better left as it is.

To commit iniquity. —Literally, to go crookedly, or, in the strict sense of the word, to do wrong.