Jeremiah 9:1 - Exposition

The Hebrew more correctly attaches this verse to Jeremiah 8:1-22 . Oh that my head were waters , etc.! A quaint conceit, it may be said. But "if we have been going on pace for pace with the passion before, this sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor into something to be actually realized in nature, is strictly and strikingly natural." So Bishop Dearie, quoting, by way of illustration, Shakespeare's 'Richard II .,' "meditating on his own utter annihilation as to royalty:"

"Oh that I were a mockery king of snow,

To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke!"

The tone of complaint continues in the following verse, though the subject is different.