14. Is there any man (living near it) who would leave the snow of
Lebanon (that is, the cool melted snow water of Lebanon, as he presently explains),
which cometh from the rock of the field (a poetical name for
Lebanon, which towers aloft above the surrounding field, or
comparatively plain country)? None. Yet Israel forsakes Jehovah, the
living fountain close at hand, for foreign broken cisterns.
Jer 17:13; 2:13,
accord with English Version here. MAURER
translates, "Shall the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock to
water (literally, 'forsake') My fields" (the whole land around
being peculiarly Jehovah's)? Lebanon means the "white
mountain"; so called from the perpetual snow which covers that part
called Hermon, stretching northeast of Palestine.
that come from another place--that come from far, namely, from
the distant lofty rocks of Lebanon. HENDERSON
translates, "the compressed waters," namely, contracted within a
narrow channel while descending through the gorges of the rocks;
"flowing" may in this view be rather "flowing down"
(So 4:15).
But the parallelism in English Version is better, "which cometh
from the rock," "that cometh from another place."
be forsaken--answering to the parallel, "Will a man leave," &c.
MAURER translates, "dry up," or "fail"
(Isa 19:5);
the sense thus being, Will nature ever turn aside from its fixed
course? The "cold waters" (compare
Pr 25:25)
refer to the perennial streams, fed from the partial melting of the
snow in the hot weather.
JFB.
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