Jeremiah 14:1–15:9

The Terrible Drought

14The 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.”^r

The People Plead with the

¹⁹Lord, 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.

Doom for the People of Judah

15^*Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight. ^2*When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said:

Some are doomed to die by disease—

that’s where they will go!

Others are doomed to die in war—

that’s where they will go!

Some are doomed to die of starvation—

that’s where they will go!

Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners—

that’s where they will go!

³I, the Lord, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over. ^4*I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah.”

⁵The Lord says,

“Who will pity you, people of Jerusalem,

and who will grieve over you?

Who will stop long enough

to ask how you are?

⁶You people have rejected me;

you have turned your backs on me.

So I stretched out my hand and crushed you

because I was tired of controlling my anger.^s

⁷In every town in the land

I threw you to the wind like straw.

I destroyed you, my people,

I killed your children

because you did not stop your evil ways.

⁸There are more widows in your land

than grains of sand by the sea.

I killed your young men in their prime

and made their mothers suffer.

I suddenly struck them

with anguish and terror.

⁹The mother who lost her seven children has fainted,

gasping for breath.

Her daylight has turned to darkness;

she is disgraced and sick at heart.

I will let your enemies kill

those of you who are still alive.

I, the Lord, have spoken.”