Isaiæ 15:18

Jerome's Latin Vulgate

Quare factus est dolor meus perpetuus,
et plaga mea desperabilis renuit curari?
facta est mihi quasi mendacium aquarum infidelium.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Quare factus est dolor meus perpetuus, et plaga mea desperabilis renuit curari ? facta est mihi quasi mendacium aquarum infidelium.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
Quare factus est dolor meus perpetuus, et plaga mea desperabilis renuit curari? Factus es mihi quasi rivus mendax, aquae infideles.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my pain: Jeremiah 14:19, Psalms 6:3, Psalms 13:1-3, Lamentations 3:1-18

my wound: Jeremiah 30:12, Jeremiah 30:15, Job 34:6, Micah 1:9

as a: Jeremiah 1:18, Jeremiah 1:19, Jeremiah 20:7

and as: Jeremiah 14:3, Job 6:15-20

fail: Heb. be not sure

Reciprocal: Numbers 11:11 - Wherefore hast thou Numbers 11:15 - let me not 2 Chronicles 28:9 - because the Lord God Job 14:11 - the flood Job 30:26 - When I looked Psalms 13:2 - take Psalms 73:14 - For all Psalms 77:8 - doth Jeremiah 4:31 - Woe Daniel 7:15 - was grieved 1 John 5:10 - hath made

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Why is my pain perpetual,.... The pain of his mind; his uneasiness for the good of his people, which was likely to last, having no hope of a change for the better: or it may design the pain which they gave him by their reproaches and persecutions of him, which seemed as if they would have no end:

and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? the same thing is meant as before. The allusion is to an old ulcer, or obstinate wound, which no medicine can affect, is desperate and deadly; and such the prophet reckoned his case to be, or however deprecates it, and expostulates with God why it should be so:

wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? such God cannot be, nor did the prophet think he was; he knew that he was God that could not lie, and that he was faithful to his promises, and would not disappoint the faith, hope, and expectations of his people; but he feared he would be thought to be so by others, by his enemies, who would triumph over him, and say, where is thy God? did he not promise to make thee a defenced city, an iron pillar, and brasen walls? is he as good as his word? is he not like a dry brook, whose waters fail? are not thy hope and expectation in vain, who hast been trusting to him, and depending on him? and it is as if the prophet should say, Lord, let them have no occasion to speak after this manner; nor suffer my faith in thy promises to fail; show thyself to be as thou art, a covenant keeping God, and whose faithfulness never fails: to which an answer is returned in the following verses.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This is the prayer of a man in bitter grief, whose human nature cannot at present submit to the divine will. God’s long-suffering toward the wicked seemed to the prophet to be the abandonment of himself to death; justice itself required that one who was suffering contumely for God’s sake should be delivered.

Rebuke - i. e., reproach, contumely.

Jeremiah 15:16

Thy words were found - Jeremiah’s summons to the prophetic office had not been expected or sought for by him.

I did eat them - i. e., I received them with joy. This eating of the divine words expresses also the close union between that which came from God and the prophet’s own being.

I am called by thy name - i. e., I am consecrated to Thy service, am ordained to be Thy prophet.

Jeremiah 15:17

Rather, “I sat not in the assembly of the laughers, and was merry.” From the time God’s words came to Jeremiah he abstained from things innocent, and a gravity came over him beyond his years.

I sat alone because of thy hand - As a person consecrated to God he would also be “separated.” See Jeremiah 1:5; compare Acts 13:2.

With indignation - The prophet thus taught of God sees the sins of the people as offences against God, and as involving the ruin of His Church.

Jeremiah 15:18

Why is my pain perpetual - i. e., Are all my labors to be in vain?

As a liar ... - Really, “as a deceitful brook,” a brook which flows only in the winter, the opposite of the “perennial stream” of Amos 5:24. Jeremiah had expected that there would be a perpetual interference of Providence in his behalf, instead whereof things seemed to take only their natural course.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 15:18. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as - waters that fail? — Meaning either springs, which in the height of summer grow dry; or, like that phenomenon in the sandy desert, where, by a peculiar action of the air on the rising vapours, the resemblance of water is produced, so that the traveller, deceived, rejoices that he is come, in the sandy desert, to the verge of a beautiful lake; but the farther he travels, it is still at the same distance, and at last vanishes; and he finds the whole was an illusion, for the waters have failed. Nothing can exceed the disappointment of the farmer whose subsistence absolutely depends on the periodical rains, when these fail, or fall short of their usual quantity. Some times the rice is sown and springs up in the most promising manner; but the latter rains fail, and whole fields of young rice wither and perish.