Jeremiah 9:1

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, for the slain of the daughter of my people. ² Oh that I had in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers, that I may leave my people and go from them, for all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors. ³ And they bend their tongue like their bow, for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land, for they go forth from evil to evil, and they do not know me," declares Yahweh. ⁴ "Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor, and you must not trust in any brother, for everyone surely betrays, and every neighbor goes about with slander. ⁵ And everyone deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak the truth, they have taught their tongues to speak lies, they are tired from going astray. ⁶ Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit, upon deceit they refuse to know me," declares Yahweh. ⁷ Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I am about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the presence of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a murderous arrow, it speaks deceit. With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor, but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush. ⁹ Because of these things shall I not punish them?" declares Yahweh, "On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge? ¹⁰ For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds of cattle are not heard, from the birds of heaven to the animals they have fled, they are gone.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

O that, Heb. Who will give, etc. Jeremiah 4:19, Jeremiah 13:17, Jeremiah 14:17, Psalms 119:136, Isaiah 16:9, Isaiah 22:4, Lamentations 2:11, Lamentations 2:18, Lamentations 2:19, Lamentations 3:48, Lamentations 3:49, Ezekiel 21:6, Ezekiel 21:7

weep: Psalms 42:3

the daughter: Jeremiah 6:26, Jeremiah 8:21, Jeremiah 8:22

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 7:6 - drew water 1 Samuel 15:11 - it grieved 1 Samuel 15:35 - Samuel mourned 2 Samuel 1:12 - General 2 Samuel 11:14 - wrote a letter 2 Kings 8:11 - wept 2 Kings 22:19 - wept Ezra 10:1 - weeping Esther 8:6 - For how Isaiah 59:11 - mourn Jeremiah 4:11 - daughter Jeremiah 8:4 - Moreover Jeremiah 9:18 - our eyes Jeremiah 10:19 - Woe Jeremiah 17:16 - neither Jeremiah 23:9 - heart Jeremiah 30:15 - for the Jeremiah 45:3 - Woe Lamentations 1:2 - weepeth Lamentations 1:16 - I weep Ezekiel 6:11 - Smite Ezekiel 12:2 - thou Ezekiel 19:1 - take Ezekiel 24:16 - thy tears Daniel 10:2 - I Daniel Micah 1:8 - I will wail Matthew 18:31 - they Luke 6:21 - ye that weep Luke 19:41 - and wept John 11:35 - General Acts 20:19 - many Romans 9:2 - General Romans 12:15 - weep 1 Corinthians 13:6 - Rejoiceth not 2 Corinthians 12:21 - that I Philippians 3:18 - even 1 Thessalonians 2:9 - night 2 Peter 2:7 - vexed

Cross-References

Genesis 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."

Genesis 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day, and he sanctified it, because on it he rested from all his work of creating that there was to do.

Genesis 8:17
Bring out with you all the living things which are with you, from all the living creatures—birds, and animals, and everything that creeps on the earth, and let them swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth."

Genesis 9:3
Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I have now given you everything.

Genesis 9:4
Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.

Genesis 9:7
"And you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it."

Genesis 9:19
These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

Genesis 10:32
These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations and in their nations. And from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, "You are our sister; may you become countless thousands; and may your offspring take possession of the gate of his enemies."

Psalms 112:1
Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh; he takes great delight in his commands.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 eighth chapter with this verse, and begin the ninth with the following.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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 good; man, merely an instrument by

which a portion of this good is distributed in the earth;

therefore none should glory in his wisdom, might, or riches,

23, 24.

The judgments of God shall fall, not upon the land of Judea

only, but also upon many heathen nations, 25, 26.

NOTES ON CHAP. IX

Verse Jeremiah 9:1. O that my head were waters — מי יתן ראשי מים mi yitten roshi mayim, "who will give to my head waters?" My mourning for the sins and desolations of my people has already exhausted the source of tears: I wish to have a fountain opened there, that I may weep day and night for the slain of my people. This has been the sorrowful language of many a pastor who has preached long to a hardened, rebellious people, to little or no effect. This verse belongs to the preceding chapter.