My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
My brethren, Those whom I regarded as my brethren, from whom I looked for faithfulness in my adversity, have disappointed me, as the streams failing from drought-wadys of Arabia, filled in the winter and spring, but dry in the summer, which disappoint the caravans expecting to find water there. The fullness and noise of these temporary streams answers to the past large and loud professions of my friends; their dryness in summer to the failure of the friendship when needed. The Arab proverb says of a treacherous friend, 'I trust not in thy torrent.' "Thou shalt be like a spring of water whose waters deceive not" (Isaiah 58:11, margin; cf. Jeremiah 15:18).
Stream of brooks - "like the brook in the ravines which passes away." It has no perpetual spring of water to renew it, unlike "the fountain of living waters" (Jeremiah 2:13); "waters sure" (Isaiah 33:16); and thus passes away as rapidly as it arose.