“That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in regard to the drought: Judah mourns and her gates languish; they sit on the ground in mourning, and the cry of Jerusalem has ascended. Their nobles have sent their servants for water; they have come to the cisterns and found no water. They have returned with their vessels empty; they have been put to shame and humiliated, and they cover their heads…. O Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?” (Jer 14:1-3, 8).
Wordplays are always difficult to capture in translation, yet their beauty in the Hebrew Bible is worth explanation. In chapter 14, Jeremiah describes a horrific drought in the land of Israel. According to Deuteronomy, droughts were the direct consequence of failing to keep the conditions of the Sinai Covenant (Deut 28:23-24).
In this context, Jeremiah’s reference to God as the “Hope of Israel” is especially striking in the original Hebrew. The lexical root for this word (kavah) can mean “to hope” (see Jer 14:19, 22), but it can also mean “to gather” (Gen 1:9). Hebrew nouns that describe a place or source are often formed by adding a prefix of the letter mem, a grammatical formation still used in modern Hebrew. For example, when we add a mem to the root “to dine” (sa‘ad), we get the word misada—a place to dine, i.e., a restaurant.
This inner thirst of the soul, according to the Scriptures, can only be satisfied by seeking hope from a source that never runs dry.
By adding a mem to the Hebrew root kavah, two nouns of source or place are formed. Mikveh can mean “a place for the gathering of water” (Gen 1:10; Ex. 7:19; Lev. 11:36) and also “a source of hope” (tikvah) (Jer 17:13; Ezra 10:2; 1 Chron 29:15). Here we see the brilliance of Jeremiah’s wordplay.
Physical thirst is the body’s way of driving us to sources of water. Depression, on the other hand, is often marked by a sense of hopelessness. This inner thirst of the soul, according to the Scriptures, can only be satisfied by seeking hope from a source that never runs dry. And the only source which never runs dry, even in times of physical deprivation and drought, is the One whom Jeremiah calls the Mikveh of Israel.
“Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant showers? Is it not You, O LORD our God? Therefore we hope in You, for You are the one who has done all these things” (Jer 14:22).
