Jeremiah 14:1–15:9

¹The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

²“Judah mourns

and her gates languish;

her people lament on the ground,

and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

³Her nobles send their servants for water;

they come to the cisterns,

they find no water,

they return with their vessels empty;

they are ashamed and confounded

and cover their heads.

⁴Because of the ground which is dismayed,

since there is no rain on the land,

the farmers are ashamed,

they cover their heads.

⁵Even the hind in the field forsakes her newborn calf

because there is no grass.

⁶The wild asses stand on the bare heights,

they pant for air like jackals;

their eyes fail

because there is no herbage.

⁷“Though our iniquities testify against us,

act, O Lord, for thy name’s sake;

for our backslidings are many,

we have sinned against thee.

⁸O thou hope of Israel,

its savior in time of trouble,

why shouldst thou be like a stranger in the land,

like a wayfarer who turns aside to tarry for a night?

⁹Why shouldst thou be like a man confused,

like a mighty man who cannot save?

Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us,

and we are called by thy name;

leave us not.”

¹⁰Thus says the Lord concerning this people:

“They have loved to wander thus,

they have not restrained their feet;

therefore the Lord does not accept them,

now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins.”

¹¹The Lord said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. ¹²Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

¹³Then I said: “Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ” ¹⁴And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come on this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. ¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷“You shall say to them this word:

‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,

and let them not cease,

for the virgin daughter of my people is smitten with a great wound,

with a very grievous blow.

¹⁸If I go out into the field,

behold, those slain by the sword!

And if I enter the city,

behold, the diseases of famine!

For both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land,

and have no knowledge.’ ”

¹⁹Hast thou utterly rejected Judah?

Does thy soul loathe Zion?

Why hast thou smitten us

so that there is no healing for us?

We looked for peace, but no good came;

for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

²⁰We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,

and the iniquity of our fathers,

for we have sinned against thee.

²¹Do not spurn us, for thy name’s sake;

do not dishonor thy glorious throne;

remember and do not break thy covenant with us.

²²Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?

Or can the heavens give showers?

Art thou not he, O Lord our God?

We set our hope on thee,

for thou doest all these things.

Chapter 15

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! ²And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,

and those who are for the sword, to the sword;

those who are for famine, to famine,

and those who are for captivity, to captivity.” ’

³“I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁵“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,

or who will bemoan you?

Who will turn aside

to ask about your welfare?

⁶You have rejected me, says the Lord,

you keep going backward;

so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you;—

I am weary of relenting.

⁷I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork

in the gates of the land;

I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people;

they did not turn from their ways.

⁸I have made their widows more in number

than the sand of the seas;

I have brought against the mothers of young men

a destroyer at noonday;

I have made anguish and terror

fall upon them suddenly.

⁹She who bore seven has languished;

she has swooned away;

her sun went down while it was yet day;

she has been shamed and disgraced.

And the rest of them I will give to the sword

before their enemies,

says the Lord.”