Jeremiah 9:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 9 The prophet's lamentation continueth over their adultery, deceit, idolatry, which God would certainly punish, and they should be laid waste, when they should sufficiently lament, Jeremiah 9:1-22. No trust in ourselves, but in God, who will punish all nations, Jeremiah 9:23-26. Oh that my head were waters! Heb. Who will give, &c.? by way of inquiry, because the Hebrews do want the imperative mood. The prophet in this chapter principally bewailing his poor countrymen's calamity, whom Its therefore calls the daughter of his people, he expresseth the greatness and excess of his sorrows, by wishing that his brains were as it were dissolved into water, (for the word is singular,) as if he wished it were all one water, signifying plenty, and that his eyes might distil tears like a fountain; the same word in the Hebrew for eye signifies a fountain; noting the continuance of it, as not to be drawn dry, expressed by day and night, apprehending it a misery so great, as never sufficiently to be bewailed. See Luke 19:41. The slain; or that are to be slain, viz. by the Babylonians; a prophetical style; as sure to be slain as if they were slain already.