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- seems unreliable:
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- "The rhetorical question in v. 18 implies that for the moment Jeremiah gave way to despair. He was so deeply and continuously wounded that he wanted to know whether God had abandoned him and had proved unreliable. After all, his own family had betrayed him. The 'deceptive brook' was a familiar figure to all his readers (cf. Job 6:15-20). In Palestine many brooks have water only after a downpour. At other times a traveler may be disappointed if he looks for water in them (contrast 2:13). In his distraught state, Jeremiah charged the Lord with failure to fulfill his promises to strengthen him in his resistance against his enemies (1:18-19)." (Charles L. Feinberg, THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY, Vol. 6, © 1986 Zondervan, p. 477)