Jeremiah 14
14
The Terrible Drought
1The LORD said to me concerning the drought,
2“Judah is in mourning;
its cities are dying,
its people lie on the ground in sorrow,
and Jerusalem cries out for help.
3The rich people send their servants for water;
they go to the cisterns,
but find no water;
they come back with their jars empty.
Discouraged and confused,
they hide their faces.
4Because there is no rain
and the ground is dried up,
the farmers are sick at heart;
they hide their faces.
5In the field the mother deer
abandons her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
6The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops
and pant for breath like jackals;
their eyesight fails them
because they have no food.
7My people cry out to me,
‘Even though our sins accuse us,
help us, LORD, as you have promised.
We have turned away from you many times;
we have sinned against you.
8You are Israel's only hope;
you are the one who saves us from disaster.
Why are you like a stranger in our land,
like a traveller who stays for only one night?
9Why are you like someone taken by surprise,
like a soldier powerless to help?
Surely, LORD, you are with us!
We are your people;
do not abandon us.’ ”
10The LORD says about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”
11The LORD said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people. 12Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”
13Then I said, “Sovereign LORD, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”
14But the LORD replied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined. 15I, the LORD, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land — I will kill them in war and by starvation. 16The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them — including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness.”
17The LORD commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say:
“May my eyes flow with tears day and night,
may I never stop weeping,
for my people are deeply wounded
and are badly hurt.
18When I go out into the fields,
I see the bodies of men killed in war;
when I go into the towns,
I see people starving to death.
Prophets and priests carry on their work,
but they don't know what they are doing.”#14.18 Prophets… doing; or Prophets and priests have been dragged away to a land they know nothing about.
The People Plead with the LORD
19 LORD, have you completely rejected Judah?
Do you hate the people of Zion?
Why have you hurt us so badly
that we cannot be healed?
We looked for peace, but nothing good happened;
we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.
20We have sinned against you, LORD;
we confess our own sins
and the sins of our ancestors.
21Remember your promises and do not despise us;
do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem,
the place of your glorious throne.
Do not break the covenant you made with us.
22None of the idols of the nations can send rain;
the sky by itself cannot make showers fall.
We have put our hope in you, O LORD our God,
because you are the one who does these things.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Jeremias (Jeremiah) 14
14
1The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias, concerning the words of the drought.
2Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen and are become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.
4For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandmen were confounded: they covered their heads.
5Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.
6And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind like dragons: their eyes failed, because there was no grass.
7If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many: we have sinned against thee.
8O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: Why wilt thou be a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?
9Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save? But thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us: forsake us not.
10Thus saith the Lord to his people that have loved to move their feet and have not rested and have not pleased the Lord: He will now remember their iniquities and visit their sins.
11And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their good.
12When they fast, I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by the pestilence.
13And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he will give you true peace in this place.
14And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision and divination and deceit and the seduction of their own heart.
15Therefore, thus saith the Lord, concerning the prophets that prophecy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16And the people to whom they prophecy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them, they and their wives, their sons and their daughters. And I will pour out their wickedness upon them.
17And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed down tears night and day and let them not cease, because the virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an exceeding grievous evil.
18If I go forth into the fields behold the slain with the sword: and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with famine. The prophet also and the priest are gone into a land which they knew not.
19Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred Sion? Why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and, behold, trouble.
20We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
21Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name's sake, and do not disgrace in us the throne of thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant with us.
22Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can send rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou the Lord our God, whom we have looked for? For thou hast made all these things.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.