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?
Why is my wound incurable? Jeremiah's wound is incurable because his people's is so: so entirely does he identify himself with them. The answer to the question here is in Jeremiah 30:15, "Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity." The pain and wound caused to Jeremiah by the perverse opposition of his people to him, in righteous retribution fell on themselves. "Pain" - namely, the perpetual persecution to which he was exposed from his countrymen, and his being left by God without consolation and "alone." Contrast his feeling here with that in Jeremiah 15:16, when he enjoyed the full presence of God, and was inspired by His words. Therefore he utters words of his natural "infirmity" (so David, Psalms 77:10) here; as before he spake under the higher spiritual nature given him.
Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail? - rather, 'as a deceiving (river) ... waters that are not sure' (lasting); opposed to "living (perennial) waters," (Job 6:15, etc.) Streams that the thirsty traveler had calculated on being full in winter, but which disappoint him in his sorest need, having run dry in the heat of summer. Yahweh had promised Jeremiah protection from his enemies (Jeremiah 1:18-19); his infirmity suggests that God had failed to do so.