Jeremiah 14

This is the message from the LORD that came to Jeremiah about the drought.

1The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

NoteJudah had no great river; its farming depended entirely on rains that came in two seasons, autumn and spring. A failed rainy season meant no crops and no drinking water, so a drought was a national emergency rather than an inconvenience.

2Judah is in mourning, and her towns are wasting away. Her people sink to the ground in mourning, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

2Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

NoteThe gates of a walled town were its public square: markets, courts, and civic business all happened in the gateway. Saying the gates "languish" means public life itself has collapsed. Sitting or sinking down on the ground was a recognized posture of mourning, like wearing black at a funeral.

3The important men send their servants to get water. They go to the water pits, but they find no water. They come back with empty jars. They are ashamed and humiliated, and they cover their heads.

3And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

NoteThe water pits are cisterns, pear-shaped tanks cut into bedrock and plastered, which collected and stored the winter rain for use through the dry months. Finding them empty meant the last reserves were gone. The Hebrew word behind "servants" means "their little ones" or "their lesser ones"; it can mean children or junior household staff, and translators differ.

4The ground is cracked open because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed, and they cover their heads.

4Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

NoteCovering the head was a public sign of shame and grief, the gesture of someone who cannot bear to be seen. Farmers whose fields fail are shown behaving like mourners at a funeral.

5Even the deer in the open field gives birth and then walks away from her newborn, because there is no grass.

5Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

NoteA doe normally hides and defends her newborn fawn for days after birth. Abandoning it is the image of nature itself breaking its own instincts under the strain.

6Wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They gasp for air like jackals. Their eyes grow dim because there is nothing to graze on.

6And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

NoteWild donkeys were desert animals, proverbial for surviving where nothing else could; when even they are failing, the drought is total. The jackal was a scavenging wild dog of the region, known for panting with its mouth open.

7LORD, our sins stand up and speak against us, but act for the sake of your own name. We have turned away from you again and again. We have sinned against you.

7O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.

NoteA person's "name" in this culture meant their public reputation, what everyone knew them for. Asking God to act "for the sake of your name" is asking him to act to protect his own standing before onlookers, not because the people deserve it.

8You are the hope of Israel, the one who saves it in times of trouble. Why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stops only to spend one night?

8O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?

NoteA traveler stopping for one night had no stake in the place and no obligation to anyone in it. The complaint is that God is behaving like a passing guest rather than a resident with responsibilities.

9Why are you like a man caught off guard, like a strong soldier who has no power to save? Yet you, LORD, are here among us, and we are called by your name. Do not leave us.

9Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "caught off guard" is uncertain; it suggests someone stunned, dazed, or taken by surprise, and translators render it variously. "Called by your name" is an ownership formula, like a name stamped on property or a family name carried by a household, used of both the people and the temple.

10This is what the LORD says about these people: "They truly love to wander. They have not held their feet back. So the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins."

10Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

Note"Wandering feet" is a stock image in Jeremiah for going off after other gods and other alliances. "Remember" here is not simply recalling; the Hebrew pairs it with a verb meaning to come and inspect, and by extension to settle accounts.

11Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the good of these people."

11Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

NotePleading with God on the people's behalf was understood to be part of a prophet's job, as Moses and Samuel were remembered for doing. Being ordered not to pray for them is therefore a striking reversal of the prophet's normal role.

12Even when they go without food to show sorrow, I will not listen to their cry. Even when they bring burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead I will finish them off with war, hunger, and deadly disease.

12When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

NoteGoing without food was a public act of mourning and appeal, often accompanied by torn clothes and ashes. A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar; a grain offering was flour with oil and incense, part burned and the rest given to the priests. "Sword, hunger, and deadly disease" is a set formula in Jeremiah for the three things that kill in a siege: fighting, starvation, and the epidemics that follow.

13Then I said, "Oh, Lord GOD, look! The prophets keep telling them, 'You will not see war, and you will not go hungry. I will give you certain peace in this place.'"

13Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

NoteWhere the King James prints "Lord GOD" with GOD in capitals, the Hebrew has two words for God together: the ordinary word for master or lord, followed by God's personal name, which the tradition avoided pronouncing. Elsewhere "LORD" in capitals stands for that personal name on its own.

14Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them. I gave them no orders, and I never spoke to them. What they announce to you is a false vision, a worthless reading of signs, an empty thing, and a lie from their own minds.

14Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.

Note"Reading of signs" is divination: seeking hidden knowledge by techniques such as casting lots, inspecting the organs of sacrificed animals, or interpreting omens and dreams. It was a normal professional practice across the ancient Near East and was banned in Israel's law.

15So this is what the LORD says about the prophets who speak in my name, though I never sent them, and who say, 'No war or hunger will come to this land.' Those very prophets will be finished off by war and hunger.

15Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

16And the people they speak to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the hunger and the war. There will be no one to bury them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. I will pour out on them the evil they themselves have done.

16And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

NoteTo be thrown into the street and left unburied was the worst disgrace imaginable, reserved for criminals and enemies; burial in a family tomb was a basic duty owed to the dead. The picture is of a city with more corpses than surviving relatives to bury them.

17So you are to say this to them: 'Let my eyes run with tears night and day, and let them never stop, because the virgin daughter of my people has been badly broken. She has been hit with a crushing blow.

17Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

NoteCities and nations were routinely spoken of as women in this poetry, and "virgin daughter" was a standard title for a city that had never been captured. The words for "broken" and "blow" are the vocabulary of a physical wound, as of a limb shattered beyond setting.

18If I go out into the fields, I see people killed by the sword. If I go into the city, I see people sick from hunger. Even the prophet and the priest travel around in a land they do not know.'"

18If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

NoteThe last line is genuinely ambiguous in the Hebrew and has been read two ways: that prophet and priest are dragged off into exile in a land they do not know, or that they go on plying their trade around the country without knowing what they are doing.

19Have you turned away from Judah for good? Do you now hate Zion? Why have you struck us so hard that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace, but nothing good came. We hoped for a time of healing, but instead there is terror.

19Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

NoteZion was originally the ridge Jerusalem was built on, and came to stand for the city as a whole, and especially the temple hill within it.

20LORD, we admit our wickedness and the guilt of our ancestors. We have sinned against you.

20We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.

21For the sake of your own name, do not turn away from us in disgust. Do not bring shame on the throne of your glory. Remember the agreement you made with us; do not break it.

21Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

NoteThe "throne of your glory" is the temple in Jerusalem, understood as the place where God was enthroned among his people. An agreement of this kind, a covenant, was a formal binding treaty with sworn obligations on both sides, the same word used for treaties between kings, not a casual understanding.

22Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Can the skies send showers on their own? Are you not the one who does it, LORD our God? So we will wait for you, because you are the one who made all these things.

22Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

NoteThe word behind "worthless idols" literally means vapor or breath: things with no substance. Rain in the surrounding nations was credited to storm gods, above all Baal, so the question of who actually sends showers was a live public argument, not a rhetorical flourish.