Why is my pain perpetual? One who could honestly speak of himself in terms such as those of Jeremiah 15:16, Jeremiah 15:17, seemed to have a special claim on the Divine protection. But Jeremiah's hopes have been disappointed.
His vexation is perpetual, and his wounded spirit finds no comfort. As a liar; rather, as a deceitful stream. The word "stream" has to be understood as in Micah 1:14. Many of the water courses of Palestine are filled with a rushing torrent in the winter, but dry in summer.
Hence the pathetic complaint of Job (Job 6:15). The opposite phrase to that used by Jeremiah is "a perennial stream" (Amos 5:24). The force of the passage is increased if we read it in the light of Dr.
Gratz's hypothesis.