And their nobles, &c. This scarcity of water afflicted not poor persons only, who had not such means of supplying their necessities as the rich; but the greatest among them, who sent their little ones, (or inferiors, as צעיריהם, seems here rather to signify,) to the places made to receive and retain water; who, finding none, returned with their vessels empty, like persons ashamed, and troubled upon seeing their expectations frustrated. Jerusalem, it must be observed, was supplied with water by two lakes, or pools, termed the upper pool, and the lower pool; Isaiah 7:3; and Isaiah 22:9; from which the water was conveyed by pipes or conduits, for the use of the city. Because the ground is chapt Hebrew, חתה, broken, bruised, turned into dust. The ploughmen The husbandmen, as אכרים, properly signifies; were ashamed Disappointed in their hopes of reaping fruit from their labours. They covered their heads An expression of great affliction and mourning. The hind also calved and forsook it The hinds are loving creatures, and as all creatures, by a natural instinct, love their young, so the hinds especially; but their moisture being dried up, they had not milk for them, but were forced to leave them, and to run hither and thither to seek grass to eat. And the wild asses, &c. The wild asses, wanting water, got upon the high places, or cliffs, where the air was cooler and its current stronger than in lower places, and their sucked in the wind; and this, it is said, they did like dragons, which are reputed to delight in cool places, and are said by Aristotle and Pliny to stand frequently upon high places imbibing the cool air. Their eyes did fail, &c. They languished, or pined away for want of food; in which case the natural splendour of the eyes, which is very great in wild asses, grows dull or languid.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 14:3
Jeremiah 14:3-6
3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.