Jeremiah 6:7

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) As a fountain casteth out her waters.—The English is plain enough, but the Hebrew presents two difficulties: (1) The word rendered “fountain” (better, cistern) is not spelt with the usual vowels, and the etymology of the verb is quite uncertain. It has been rendered, As a cistern “gathers” or “keeps in,” or “keeps its waters cool,” or “lets them flow.” The general meaning is probably given by the Authorised Version. Jerusalem was literally “overflowing” with wickedness.

Grief.—Better, sickness. The word and the imagery are the same as in Isaiah 1:5.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-8 Whatever methods are used, it is vain to contend with God's judgments. The more we indulge in the pleasures of this life, the more we unfit ourselves for the troubles of this life. The Chaldean army shall break in upon the land of Judah, and in a little time devour all. The day is coming, when those careless and secure in sinful ways will be visited. It is folly to trifle when we have eternal salvation to work out, and the enemies of that salvation to fight against. But they were thus eager, not that they might fulfil God's counsels, but that they might fill their own treasures; yet God thereby served his own purposes. The corrupt heart of man, in its natural state, casts out evil thoughts, just as a fountain casts out her waters. It is always flowing, yet always full. The God of mercy is loth to depart even from a provoking people, and is earnest with them, that by repentance and reformation, they may prevent things from coming to extremity.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As a fountain casteth out - Better, As a cistern "cooleth."

Before me ... - Before My face continually there is disease and wounding: Disease as the result of poverty and want: wounding, or, the commission of deeds of actual violence.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. fountain—rather, a well dug, from which water springs; distinct from a natural spring or fountain.

casteth out—causeth to flow; literally, "causeth to dig," the cause being put for the effect (2Ki 21:16, 24; Isa 57:20).

me—Jehovah.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In this verse God aggravates their sin of oppression, mentioned in the former.

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness; a metaphor, to express how natural all manner of wickedness is to her, how full she is of it, and how incessant in it, noting her impudence, a fountain being not able to retain its water; and the expression of casting it out seems to imply her violence in her filthiness, as it is said of the sea, that it casteth out mire and dirt, Isaiah 57:20, and favoured by the next clause.

Violence and spoil is heard in her: q.d. This is all she busieth herself about, Jeremiah 20:8. It is the general complaint of her inhabitants.

Before me continually is grief and wounds, viz. that the poor sustain: wherever I go or look, I can hear and see nothing but the sad complaints and grievances of the poor, lamenting over oppression and cruelties that are used against them, Psalm 69:26, this being so expressly against God’s command, Exodus 22:22-24, &c.; Isaiah 3:14,15 Jas 5:4; for this refers rather to their sin than to their sufferings from the enemy, as some would carry it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

As a fountain casteth out her waters,.... In great abundance, and continually:

so she casteth out her wickedness; this metaphor expresses the multitude of her sins, the frequent and constant commission of them, and the source and spring of them, the corrupt fountain of the heart; see Matthew 12:34,

violence and spoil is heard in her; that is, the cry of those that are oppressed and spoiled is heard, and that by the Lord himself, whose ears are open to the cries of the oppressed, and will avenge them:

before me continually is grief and wounds; the poor, who were grieved and wounded by their oppressors; the Lord was an eye and ear witness of their grievances, and would redress them; nor could their enemies expect to escape his wrath, since they were all known to him; or else the sense is, that because of their violence and spoil of the poor, it was continually before the Lord, in his mind and purpose, and he was just ready to bring upon them, by way of punishment for these things, what would grieve and wound them; so Jarchi interprets it, which Kimchi mentions; and to it the Targum agrees,

"the voice of robbers and plunderers is heard in her before me continually, therefore will I bring upon her evil and smiting.''

Geneva Study Bible

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. The cherished wickedness of the people is illustrated by a metaphor.

a well casteth forth] MT. has two readings, well and fountain. In the former water is stored to keep it fresh, in the latter it springs out of the ground. In this application accordingly Jeremiah will mean either (a) that sin is an alien thing which has been introduced into the heart as a supply upon which to draw, or (b) that it is innate there. That he held the latter view might seem to draw support from Jeremiah 13:23, which however is not conclusive (see note there), and the former is to be preferred. It has the support of the LXX, who also agree with the mg. “keepeth fresh,” thus deriving the Hebrew form from a verb quite different in sense but akin in letters to the rare one in MT., which, though found elsewhere (2 Kings 19:24; Isaiah 37:25) only in the sense of digging for water, yet according to Rabbinic interpretation bears also the meaning given in E.VV.

sickness and wounds] disease produced by want, and deeds of violence.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - As a fountain casteth out; rather, as a cistern keepeth fresh (literally, cool). The wickedness of Jerusalem is so thoroughly ingrained that it seems to pass into act by a law of nature, just as a cistern cannot help always yielding a supply of cool, fresh water. Violence and spoil; rather, injustice and violence (so Jeremiah 20:8; Amos 3:10; Habakkuk 1:3). Before me, etc.; rather, before my face continually is sickness and wounding. The ear is constantly dinned with the sounds of oppression, and the eye pained with the sight of the bodily sufferings of the victims. The word for" sickness" is applicable to any kind of infirmity (see Isaiah 53:3, 4), but the context clearly limits it here to bodily trouble. Jeremiah 6:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The description passes from figure to reality, and the enemies appear before us as speaking, inciting one another to the combat, encouraging one another to storm the city. To sanctify a war, i.e., prepare themselves for the war by religious consecration, inasmuch as the war was undertaken under commission from God, and because the departure of the army, like the combat itself, was consecrated by sacrifice and other religious ceremonies; see on Joel 3:9. עלה, to go up against a place as an enemy, not, go up upon, in which case the object, them (the city or walls), could not be omitted. It is plainly the storming or capture of the town that is meant by the going up; hence we may understand what follows: and we will destroy her palaces. We have a rousing call to go up at noon or in clear daylight, joined with "woe to us," a cry of disappointment that they will not be able to gain their ends so soon, not indeed till night; in these we see the great eagerness with which they carry on the assault. יום פּנה, the day turns itself, declines towards its end; cf. Psalm 90:9. The enemies act under a commission from God, who has imposed on them the labour of the siege, in order to punish Jerusalem for her sins. Jahveh is here most fittingly called the God of hosts; for as God of the world, obeyed by the armies of heaven, He commands the kings of the earth to chastise His people. Hew wood, i.e., fell trees for making the siege works, cf. Deuteronomy 20:20, both for raising the attacking ramparts,

(Note: Agger ex terra lignisque attollitur contra murum, de quo tela jactantur. Veget. de re milit. iv. 15.)

and for the entire apparatus necessary for storming the town. עצה is not a collective form from עץ, like דּגה from דּג; but the ה is a suffix in spite of the omission of the Mappik, which is given by but a few of the codd., eastern and western, for we know that Mappik is sometimes omitted, e.g., Numbers 15:28, Numbers 15:31; cf. Ew. 247, d. We are encouraged to take it so by Deuteronomy 20:19, where עצה are the trees in the vicinity of the town, of which only the fruit trees were to be spared in case of siege, while those which did not bear eatable fruit were to be made use of for the purposes of the siege. And thus we must here, too, read עצה, and refer the suffix to the next noun (Jerusalem). On "pile up a rampart," cf. 2 Samuel 20:5; Ezekiel 4:2, etc. הפקד is used as passive of Kal, and impersonally. The connection with העיר is to be taken like חנה in Isaiah 29:1 : the city where it is punished, or perhaps like Psalm 59:6, the relative being supplied: that is punished. כּלּהּ is not to be joined, contrary to the accents, with הפקד (Ven., J. D. Mich.), a connection which, even if it were legitimate, would give but a feeble thought. It belongs to what follows, "she is wholly oppression in her midst," i.e., on all sides in her there is oppression. This is expanded in Jeremiah 6:7. lxx and Jerome have taken הקיר from קרר, and translate: like as a cistern keeps its water cool (ψύχει, frigidam facit), so she keeps her wickedness cool. Hitz. has pronounced in favour of this interpretation, but changes "keep cool" into "keep fresh," and understands the metaphor thus: they take good care that their wickedness does not stagnate or become impaired by disuse. But it would be a strange metaphor to put "keep wickedness cool," for "maintain it in strength and vigour." We therefore, along with Luth. and most commentators, prefer the rabbinical interpretation: as a well makes its water to gush out, etc.; for there is no sufficient force in the objection that מקור from קוּר, dig, is not a spring but a well, that הקיר has still less the force of making to gush forth, and that בּור wholly excludes the idea of causing to spring out. The first assertion is refuted by Jeremiah 2:13, מקור, fountain of living water; whence it is clear that the word does mean a well fed by a spring. It is true, indeed, that the word בּור, a later way of writing בּאר (cf. 1 Chronicles 11:17. 22 with 2 Samuel 23:15. 20), means usually, a pit, a cistern dug out; but this form is not substantially different from בּאר, well, puteus, which is used for בּור in Psalm 55:24 and Psalm 69:16. Accordingly, this latter form can undoubtedly stand with the force of בּאר, as has been admitted by the Masoretes when they substituted for it בּאר; cf. the Arab. bi'run. The noun מקור puts beyond doubt the legitimacy of giving to הקיר, from קוּר, to dig a well, the signification of making water to gush forth.

The form הקרה is indeed referable to קרר, but only shows, as is otherwise well known, that no very strict line of demarcation can be drawn between the forms of verbs 'עע and 'הקיר ;עו, again, is formed regularly from קוּר. Violence and spoiling; cf. Jeremiah 20:8, and Amos 3:10; Habakkuk 1:3. "Before my face," before mine eyes, corresponds to "is heard," as wounds and smitings are the consequences of violence. On that head, cf. Psalm 55:10-12.