Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon? - Is there any man (living near it) who would leave the snow of Lebanon - (i:e., the cool melted snow water of Lebanon, as he presently explains), which cometh from "the rock of the field?" (a poetical name for Lebanon, which towers aloft above the surrounding field, or comparatively plain country). None. Yet Israel forsakes Yahweh, the living fountain close at hand, for foreign broken cisterns. Jeremiah 17:13; Jeremiah 2:13, accord with the English version here. Maurer translates, 'Shall the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock to water (literally, forsake) my fields?' (the whole land around being peculiarly Yahweh's.) Lebanon means the white mountain; so called from the perpetual snow which covers that part called Hermon, stretching northeast of Palestine.
The cold flowing waters that come from another place - that come from far, namely, from the distant lofty rocks of Lebanon. Henderson, translates, 'the compressed cold flowing waters' х zaariym (H2114), from zuwr (H2114), to compress] - namely, contracted within a narrow channel while descending through the gorges of the rocks; "flowing" may in this view be rather "flowing down" (Song of Solomon 4:15). But the, parallelism in the English version is better, "which cometh from the rock,' "that cometh from another place."
Be forsaken - answering to the parallel, "Will a man leave?" Maurer translates х yinaatªshuw (H5428), 'dry up,' or 'fail' naatash (H5428) is thus identified with naashat (H5405), to fail] (Isaiah 19:5); the sense thus being, Will nature ever turn aside from its fixed course? [But naatash (H5428) means to tear away.] Translate, 'Shall the cold flowing waters from afar be forcibly torn away?' The English version takes the Hebrew as equivalent to х naaTash (H5203)] to forsake-a legitimate though rare usage. The "cold waters" (cf. Proverbs 25:25) refer to the perennial streams fed from the partial melting of the snow in the hot weather.