Bible Strands
Jeremiah 9:1
Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks as a prophet lamenting the national destruction of Israel, specifically mourning the "slain daughter of my people" amid a context of widespread apostasy and imminent judgment.
The words — The Hebrew phrase יִתֵּן (yi.Ten) "will he give" introduces a wish for רֹאשִׁי (ro.Sh/i) "my head" to become מַיִם (Ma.yim) "water," paired with עֵינִי (ve./'ei.N/i) "my eye" as a מְקוֹר (me.Kor) "fountain" of דִמְעָה (dim.'Ah) "tears."
The thread — This motif of inexpressible grief through weeping appears in Jeremiah 13:17, Isaiah 22:4, and Jeremiah 8:21, where prophets express mourning over national sin and destruction.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of the prophet’s overwhelming sorrow over his people’s fate, framing divine judgment as a reality that exhausts human capacity for comfort or concealment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 13:17 But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
- Isaiah 22:4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
- Jeremiah 8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
- Lamentations 2:11 My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.
- Jeremiah 6:26 O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- Psalms 42:3 My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
- Psalms 119:136 My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.
- Isaiah 16:9 So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest.
- Jeremiah 14:17 You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.
- Lamentations 2:18 The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let your tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief, and your eyes no rest.