Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 15:18
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, [which] refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, [and as] waters [that] fail?
18. a deceitful brook] The dried-up watercourse belies the anticipations of the thirsty traveller. Cp. Job 6:15.
fail ] lit. as mg. are not sure.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Jer 15:18
Why is my pain perpetual?
The function of pain
This piteous lament may fitly represent the anguished cry of suffering humanity, from age to age. In all lands, under all skies, in all times, the same mournful wail is heard,–a ceaseless dirge of woe, day and night, from ten thousand times ten thousand hearts, struggling with adversity, battling with disease, staggering under the weight of sorrow or suffering. Why is my pain perpetual? It would almost seem that men had abandoned the attempt to solve these problems; for by common consent, pain and disease, suffering and sorrow, are called mysteries,–dark and inscrutable mysteries. But they are not all darkness and incomprehensibility. These mysteries are also masteries–masterful forces in the education and exaltation of humanity. Have you ever considered what kind of a world this would be if there were no pain here, no sick beds, no sorrow-stricken homes? Have you ever reflected that these inscrutable mysteries are the chosen instrumentalities for fashioning the highest types of character, both in the sufferer himself and in those who minister to his suffering? Pain and disease did, it is true, come into the world as the attendants and servants of sin; but it is pity indeed if we have not learned that the Lord has made them His ministers and His servants, even as He made the thorns and thistles, the labour and the sweat, which resulted from the Fall, the means of the development of the faculties and powers of man, the fountains of progress and civilisation. The earth was once a stranger to pain, and it will be again; but in the former case sin had not entered, and so perhaps pain was not needed; and in the latter, sin will be abolished because the lesson of pain will have been fully learned. Had there never been pain and suffering, what a different world it would have been! All marsh and meadow; all plain and prairie; no towering cliffs and yawning chasms; no heaven-kissing Mont Blanc; no thunderous Niagara; no valley of the Yosemite–a dead-level world! Those lofty heights of heroism and patience which now delight the eye in the retrospect of the past, would sink into monotonous stretches of commonplace lives. Those names writ large by the pen of history, and made radiant by the light of self-forgetting devotion, would disappear with the pain or the suffering or the calamity that made them great. We may, therefore, thank God for pain, for suffering, for sorrow. Whichever has been our lot, depend upon it we arc, or if not, we ought to be, the better, the wiser, the richer, for it. If we take it patiently, as the good will of our good God, then will it prove a blessing. Then will sorrow be the crucible in the hands of the Divine Master, wherein the dross of the soul will be purged away, and the gold refined. But let us not make the mistake of supposing that tribulation–this threshing of the soul–in any of its forms necessarily produces the results which I have described. These are the peaceable fruits which the gracious Father desires and designs that they should bring forth. These are what they are fitted to produce. But we must remember that the material to be fashioned in this case is a free, self-determining human soul, whose freedom cannot be violated without destroying its very essential fibre. The effect, then, of trial and affliction, whether bodily or mental, depends upon the way in which it is received. It may embitter, instead of sweetening, the spirit. It may harden, instead of softening, the heart. And then the gracious purpose of Him who chasteneth not in wrath, but in mercy, will be frustrated and turned aside by the perversity of man. To strengthen our faith, then, let us recall some of the utterances of those holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,–passages in which the casual connection between suffering and holiness is distinctly stated. Saith the wise man, The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts. Saith the afflicted patriarch, Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Saith the prophet in the name of the Lord, I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, etc. Our Lord said, I am the Vine, ye are the branches, and added, Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, etc. St. Peter, the foremost of the apostles, writes, Though now for a season . . . ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, it is that the trial of your faith, etc. St. James bids us etc., giving as the reason, that chastisement produces the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Side by side with their words let us place the deeds, the examples, of these holy men of old. One can see in the mirror of their writings, as well as in the record of their lives, that these chosen ones were, like their Divine Master, made perfect through suffering, or at least that their sufferings and afflictions had led them far up the path whose goal is perfection. The intensity of their conviction glows and burns on every page. When they assert the purifying effect of suffering, we feel that they are testifying out of the fulness of a personal knowledge. They speak that they do know, and testify that they have seen and felt in their own hearts and lives. But not these holy men of old alone. Men and women of our time, too, a noble army, have ascended with Jesus into the holy mount by the same arduous path, leaving us an example that we should follow their steps. How often have we seen the purifying power of pain and loss, of sorrow and trial! How often have we marked in the life of some patient sufferer the gradual unfolding of the Christlikeness, till at length the crown of thorns has been changed into a mitre of glory, on which we could trace the words, Perfect through suffering! You may, therefore, strengthen your wavering faith, O sufferer! in the beneficent purpose of this, Gods strange economy, by lifting your eyes to the great cloud of witnesses who have trod the same rough and thorny path. Your suffering, whatever its form, whatever its intensity, is not without your Father. You are in His hands. He does not forget you; He will never leave or forsake you; He only designs thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine. Look intently, O sufferer! and you will see pain slowly transfigured before your gaze till it takes on the very features of Him of whom the prophet said, He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. You are suffering, moreover, it may be, not for your own benefit alone, but for that of others. There is a principle of vicariousness in human suffering. Let me illustrate. A poor traveller falls ill of fever all alone in the South American swamps. There he lies for days in a wretched hut, quenching his thirst with the waters of a pool close at hand. At last this pool dries up; and with extreme difficulty, the sick man crawls to another, half a mile distant. Its water is so bitter he can scarcely drink it; but he must drink it, or die of thirst. That afternoon he could not think why he felt stronger than for many weeks. Next day he drank more abundantly of the bitter pool; and still, the more he drank, the stronger he grew, till he was entirely restored; then he found that a tree had fallen into the water, which gave it its bitterness, and gave it also its power of cure. And this is the way in which one of the most important medicines now in use was discovered,–a medicine which has saved thousands and thousands of lives which must else have perished. Even so hath God appointed that some of us should drink the bitter waters of affliction or of pain, that others may be given spiritual health and salvation. (R. H. MKim, D. D.)
Uses of pain
Some plants owe their medicinal qualities to the marsh in which they grow; others to the shades in which alone they flourish. There are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by the sun. Boats need ballast as well as sail; a drag on the carriage wheel is no hindrance when the road runs downhill. Pain has, probably, in some cases developed genius, hunting out the soul which otherwise might have slept like a lion in its den. Had it not been for the broken wing some might have lost themselves in the clouds, some even of those choice doves who now bear the olive branch in their mouths, and show the way to the ark. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Blessing of pain
Above all things let us learn this lesson from the example of Princess Alice–the quickening, purifying, bracing power of pain. In every trial that she had to undergo–and perhaps these trials were more than ordinarily severe and frequent–we see how her character developed and strengthened. To her each trial was as an April storm to a young plant or tree, lending new vigour to the roots, new power to its growth, so that when the sun shines the buds are seen to expand and blossom–those same buds which, without the rain cloud, would have shrivelled and died. Every time she was called upon to give up what she most deeply cherished, she counted, with faith and gratitude, the blessings that remained to her. Thus do we learn humility, she said with quivering lip. God has called for one life, and has given me back
Chronic fain
Pascal, the great mathematician and moralist, said, From the day I was eighteen, I do not know that I ever passed a single day without pain.
Wilt Thou be altogether unto me as a liar.—
God misjudged
Here the prophet overfreely expostulateth with God as less faithful, or less mindful, at least, of the promised preservation. This was in a fit of diffidence and discontent, as the best have their outbursts, and the greatest lamps have needed snuffers. The Milesians, saith the philosophers, are not fools, yet they do the things that fools use to do. So the saints do oft as wicked ones, but not in the same manner and degree. (John Trapp.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The words are judged to be the words of Jeremiah, and that with relation unto himself, complaining of the hard task which God had put upon him, continually filling his mouth With such bitter words of evil against the people, as exposed him to their most implacable rage against him, and persecution of him, so as his misery seemed like a
pain and a
wound, for which was no remedy but patience. Jeremiah, though a great prophet of the Lord, was (as Elijah) a man subject to like passions with other men; he here chargeth God with unfaithfulness, as if he had deceived his expectations, and had been to him as a pit of waters that promised fair, but failed a man when he had most need of them. The servants of God have sometimes been surprised with such passions and temptations, 1Sa 27:1; Psa 77:7,9. It is a hard thing not to see, and yet believe.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. (Jer30:15). “Pain,” namely, the perpetual persecution towhich he was exposed, and his being left by God without consolationand “alone.” Contrast his feeling here with that in Jer15:16, when he enjoyed the full presence of God, and was inspiredby His words. Therefore he utters words of his natural “infirmity”(so David, Ps 77:10) here; asbefore he spoke under the higher spiritual nature given him.
as a liar, and asrather,”as a deceiving (river) . . . waters that are not sure(lasting)”; opposed to “living (perennial) waters”(Job 6:15). Streams that thethirsty traveller had calculated on being full in winter, but whichdisappoint him in his sorest need, having run dry in the heat ofsummer. Jehovah had promised Jeremiah protection from his enemies(Jer 1:18; Jer 1:19);his infirmity suggests that God had failed to do so.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Before we proceed, we shall shortly refer to the meaning of the passage. Jeremiah has before shewn that he possessed an heroic courage in despising all the splendor of the world, and in regarding as nothing those proud men who boasted that they were the rulers of the Church: but he now confesses his infirmity; and there is no doubt but that he was often agitated by different thoughts and feelings; and this necessarily happens to us, because the flesh always fights against the spirit. For though the Prophet announced nothing human when he declared the truth of God, yet he was not wholly exempt from sorrow and fear and other feelings of the flesh. For we must always distinguish, when we speak of the prophets and the apostles, between the truth, which was pure, free from every imperfection, and their own persons, as they commonly say, or themselves. Nor were, they so perfectly renewed but that some remnant of the flesh still continued in them. So then Jeremiah was in himself disturbed with anxiety and fear, and affected with weariness, and wished to shake off the burden which he felt so heavy on his shoulders. He was then subject to these feelings, that is, as to himself; yet his doctrine was free from every defect, for the Holy Spirit guided his mind, his thoughts, and his tongue, so that there was in it nothing human. The Prophet then has hitherto testified that he was called from above, and that he had cordially undertaken the office deputed to him by God, and had faithfully obeyed him: but now he comes to himself, and confesses that he was agitated by many thoughts, which betokened the infirmity of the flesh, and were not free from blame. This then is the meaning.
He says, Why is my grief strong, or hard? He intimates that his grief could not be eased by any soothing remedy. He alludes to ulcers, which by their hardness repel all emollients. And for the same purpose he adds, And my wound weak, as some render it, for it is from אנש anesh, to be feeble; and hence is אנוש anush, which means man; and it expresses his weakness, as אדם adam, shews his origin, and איש aish, intimates his strength and courage. Others render the words, “and my wound full of pain;” and others, “strong,” as he had before called his grief strong. He afterwards thus explains what he meant by the terms he used, It refuses to be healed There is no doubt, as I have already intimated, but that the Prophet here honestly expresses the perturbations of his own mind, and shews that he in a manner vacinated; the wickedness of the people was so great, that he could not so perseveringly execute his office as he ought to have done. (150)
He adds, Thou wilt be to me as the deception of inconstant waters I wonder why some render the words, “Thou wilt be to me deceptive as inconstant waters.” The word may indeed be an adjective, but it is doubtless to be rendered as a substantive, “Thou wilt be to me as the deception,” and then, “of unfaithful waters.” that is, of such as flow not continually: for faithful or constant waters are those which never fail; as the Latins call a fountain inexhaustible whose spring never dries; so the Hebrews call a fountain faithful or constant which never fails either in summer or in drought. On the contrary, they call waters unfaithful which become dry, as when a well, which has no perennial veins, is made dry by great heat; and such also is often the case with large streams. (151)
We now see the import of this comparison: but the words are apparently very singular; for the Prophet expostulates with God as though he had been deceived by him, “Thou wilt be to me,” he says, “as a vain hope, and as deceptive waters, which fail during great heat, when they are mostly wanted.” If we take the words as they appear to mean, they seem to border on blasphemy; for God had not without reason testified before, that he is the Fountain of living water; and he had condemned the Jews for having dug for themselves broken cisterns, and for having forsaken him, the Fountain of living water. Such, no doubt, had He been found by all who trusted in him. What then does Jeremiah mean here by saying, that God was to him as a vain hope, and as waters which continue not to flow? The Prophet, no doubt, referred to others rather than to himself; for his faith had never been shaken nor removed from his heart. He then knew that he could never be deceived; for relying on God’s word he greatly magnified his calling, not only before the world, but also with regard to himself: and his glorytug, which we have already seen, did not proceed except from the inward feeling of his heart. The Prophet then was ever fully confident, because he relied on God, that he could not be made ashamed; but here, as I have said, he had regard to others. And we have already seen similar passages, and the like expressions will hereafter follow.
There is no doubt but that it was often exultingly alleged that the Prophet was a deceiver: “Let him go on and set before us the words of his God; it has already appeared that his boasting is vain in saying that he has hitherto spoken as a prophet.” Since then the ungodly thus harassed the Prophet, he might have justly complained that God was not to him like perennial springs, because they all thought that he was deceived. And we must always bear in mind what I said yesterday, — that the Prophet does not speak here for his own sake, but raffler that he might reprove the impiety of the people. It therefore follows —
(150) It is better to retain throughout the figurative language, —
Why has my sore become perpetual, And my stroke incurable, refusing to be healed?
He mentions “sore” first, the effect; then the “stroke” which casued it. He refers doubtless to the state of his mind: therefor “the sore” and “the stroke” were the sorrow and the grief which he experienced. — Ed.
(151) The Septuagint and the Vulgate strangely refer to this stroke or the wound in the previous clause, “It has become like the deception of inconstant water:” but the gender of the infinitive added to the verb will not admit of this rendering. It is literally as follows, —
Becoming thou hast become like a deceiveer, Like waters which are not constant.
The word אכזכ is not substantive, but an adjective, formed like אכזר, violent. The quotation from Chardin, made by Blayney, respecting an illusion in the deserts of Arabia, occasioned by the sun’s rays on the sand, by which a vast lake appears, is here out of place, as unfaithful or inconstant waters, not unreal, is what is expressed. Calvin’s view is no doubt correct. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar . . .?The words express a bitter sense of failure and disappointment. God had not prospered the mission of His servant as He had promised. The Hebrew, however, is not so startlingly bold as the English, and is satisfied by the rendering, wilt thou be unto me as a winter torrent, i.e., as in Job. 6:15, like one which flows only in that season, and is dried up and parched in summer. See the play upon the word achzib (= a lie) in Mic. 1:14.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Pain perpetual Implying that he had been long in the prophetical office.
A liar Rather, a deceptive torrent, that dries up in the season of drought and so disappoints hope. See Job 6:15; Mic 1:16. The phrase waters that fail is epexegetical.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 15:18. Wilt thou be altogether, &c. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as the lying of waters that are not sure? Our translation certainly conveys too harsh an idea, nor is there any reason for it; for the passage may very well be rendered differently. Houbigant renders it, Why is my life unto me as waters which fail and flow away: and others, Thou art become to me a fountain which faileth, and as waters which are not to be trusted. See Isa 58:11. “Thou hast promised to be my defence and protector against all my enemies; and wilt thou altogether disappoint and deceive me; like rivulets, which, being dried up in the summer, disappoint the thirsty traveller?” Instead of incurable, in the former part of the verse, some read, not to be touched; so painful and tender, that it will not bear the touch of the healer. See Dr. Waterland’s Script. Vind. part. 3: p. 81.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, [which] refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, [and as] waters [that] fail?
Ver. 18. Why is my pain perpetual? &c. ] Here the prophet too freely expostulates with God, as less faithful, or less mindful at least, of the promised preservation. This was in a fit of diffidence and discontent, as the best have their outbursts, and the greatest lamps have needed snuffers. The Milesians, saith the philosopher, are not fools; yet they do the things that fools use to do. So the saints do oft as wicked ones, but not in the same manner and degree.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a liar = a deceitful [brook]. The Ellipsis, to be supplied from next clause, as a brook that disappointeth. Compare Job 6:20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
my pain: Jer 14:19, Psa 6:3, Psa 13:1-3, Lam 3:1-18
my wound: Jer 30:12, Jer 30:15, Job 34:6, Mic 1:9
as a: Jer 1:18, Jer 1:19, Jer 20:7
and as: Jer 14:3, Job 6:15-20
fail: Heb. be not sure
Reciprocal: Num 11:11 – Wherefore hast thou Num 11:15 – let me not 2Ch 28:9 – because the Lord God Job 14:11 – the flood Job 30:26 – When I looked Psa 13:2 – take Psa 73:14 – For all Psa 77:8 – doth Jer 4:31 – Woe Dan 7:15 – was grieved 1Jo 5:10 – hath made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 15:18. Pain and wound refers to the sorrow and humiliation that the prophet had to suffer on account of his wicked countrymen. He was in a perpetual strain because they would not give him any relief from their persecution. It was in that sense that he declared his wound, (bitter persecu-tion) to be incurable. The word liar seems very harsh to us and we know that Jeremiah did not use it as an accusation against the Lord. However, certain characters may be used for compurisou at some points without extending the likeness to all the points in general. The comparison in the mind of Jeremiah was in the fact that a liar would disappoint anyone who would rely upon him. Wilt thou be, etc., is merely Jeremiah’s way of beseeching the Lord to have mercy upon him and not let him be disappointed. We are sure this was the point the prophet was making because of the comparison at the end of the verse. Waters need not be thought of as anything objectionable unless they failed to continue, and in that case they would be the cause of disappointment as would the words of a liar,
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, [which] refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether to me {r} as a liar, [and as] waters [that] fail?
(r) And have not assisted me according to the promise? In which it appears that in the saints of God is imperfection of faith, which through impatience is often assailed as in Jer 20:7 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The prophet asked God why his broken heart refused to heal (cf. Jer 6:14). The Lord promised refreshment to His people, even Himself (Jer 2:13), but this had not been Jeremiah’s personal experience. God seemed like an unreliable wadi (stream bed) to Jeremiah. It promised water but was completely dry for most of the year (cf. Job 6:15-20).
"The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a situation of conflict, conflict with his people and conflict with his God. He was at conflict with his people because of the message of judgment he proclaimed to them. He was at conflict with his God because he considered it unjust that he should suffer as a result of proclaiming God’s message. He consequently complained to the Lord about his situation." [Note: Kelley, p. 212.]