Jeremiah 14 opens with a devastating drought oracle — the land itself groans under divine judgment, with nobles, farmers, and animals alike brought to despair. Jeremiah intercedes for the people in deeply moving prayer (vv. 7-9, 19-22), but God refuses to accept the intercession and repeats the prohibition first issued in 7:16 and 11:14: 'Do not pray for this people.' The chapter includes a sharp condemnation of false prophets who promise peace when none is coming, and God's declaration that both the false prophets and those who listen to them will face sword and famine.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
This chapter contains two of Jeremiah's most eloquent intercessory prayers, both rejected by God — a theological crisis at the heart of the prophetic vocation. The drought serves as a concrete manifestation of covenant-curse (Deuteronomy 28:23-24), making the physical landscape a witness against the people. The image of God as a 'stranger in the land' and a 'traveler who turns aside for the night' (v. 8) is one of the most startling metaphors in the Hebrew Bible — Jeremiah accuses God of behaving like a disengaged passerby in his own land. The triple prohibition against intercession (7:16, 11:14, 14:11) progressively closes the door on prophetic mediation, leaving Judah without an advocate before God. We preserved the poetic structure of the drought lament and the intercessory prayers to distinguish them from the prose divine responses.
Translation Friction
The word batstsarot ('distress, anguish') in verse 8 required careful handling — it describes God's relationship to Israel's suffering, not Israel's emotional state. The verb natash ('abandon') in verse 9 is covenant-language for forsaking an obligation, stronger than mere absence. The phrase navi sheqer ('false prophet') in verses 14-15 had to be rendered consistently with the Jeremiah briefing addendum's locked vocabulary. The intercessory prayers use first-person plural ('we') — Jeremiah identifies with the sinful people even as God rejects them, creating a tension the rendering must not smooth over.
Connections
The drought as covenant-curse connects to Deuteronomy 28:23-24 and Leviticus 26:19-20. The prohibition against intercession reprises 7:16 and 11:14. The false prophets condemned here anticipate the extended confrontation with Hananiah in chapter 28. Jeremiah's intercessory prayers echo Moses's intercessions (Exodus 32:11-14, Numbers 14:13-19), but unlike Moses, Jeremiah is denied. The drought imagery connects to Joel 1 and Amos 4:7-8. The covenant-confession formula 'we acknowledge our wickedness' (v. 20) echoes the Day of Atonement liturgy.
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
KJV The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The Hebrew batstsarot (plural of batstsoret) refers to drought or severe lack of rain — the KJV's 'dearth' is archaic. The plural form may indicate either repeated droughts or the comprehensive nature of the disaster. This superscription frames the entire chapter as a prophetic response to an actual agricultural crisis.
Judah mourns;
her gates languish to the ground.
They sit in darkness on the earth,
and the cry of Jerusalem rises up.
KJV Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb avelah ('mourns') is used of both human grief and the land itself mourning — a common prophetic device where the physical landscape participates in covenant judgment. The verb qaderu ('they are dark, they sit in gloom') can mean either literal darkness or the posture of mourning (sitting on the ground in black garments). The cry of Jerusalem 'rising up' uses the verb alah, the same root as olah ('burnt offering') — the city's anguish ascends like smoke.
Their nobles send their servants to the cisterns;
they come to the pits and find no water.
They return with their vessels empty,
ashamed and humiliated, covering their heads.
KJV And 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The word tse'oreihem is debated — it can mean 'their little ones' (KJV) or 'their servants/subordinates.' In context, nobles sending servants for water makes more practical sense. The covering of heads is a gesture of mourning and shame (cf. 2 Samuel 15:30, Esther 6:12). The empty vessels are a powerful concrete image — drought reduces the mighty to helplessness.
Because the ground is cracked,
for there has been no rain on the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
they cover their heads.
KJV Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb chattah ('cracked, shattered') describes soil so dry it fractures — the same root can mean 'terrified' when applied to people, creating a subtle double meaning where the ground itself recoils in fear. The farmers (ikkarim) are the backbone of Judah's economy; their shame represents the collapse of the agricultural order that sustained covenant life in the promised land.
Even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons her young,
because there is no grass.
KJV Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The image of the doe (ayyelet) abandoning her newborn fawn is devastating — maternal instinct, the most powerful force in the animal world, is overridden by the severity of the drought. The absence of deshe ('fresh grass, vegetation') means the mother cannot produce milk. Nature itself breaks under covenant judgment.
Wild donkeys stand on the bare heights,
gasping for air like jackals;
their eyes grow dim
because there is no vegetation.
KJV And 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The pera'im ('wild donkeys') are the hardiest animals of the wilderness — if they are failing, all life is failing. They stand on shepayim ('bare heights') where wind might carry the scent of water. The word tannim is 'jackals' (not 'dragons' as in the KJV) — jackals pant with open mouths in heat. The dimming eyes indicate approaching death from dehydration. The drought has reached even the untamed creatures that depend on no one.
Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, LORD, for the sake of your name.
For our acts of turning away are many —
we have sinned against you.
KJV O 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.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
מְשׁוּבֹתֵינוּmeshuvotenu
"acts of turning away"—backslidings, apostasies, turnings away, defections
From the root shuv. In Jeremiah, shuv carries the full weight of covenant faithlessness — the people have turned their backs on the relationship.
Translator Notes
Jeremiah's intercession begins here and runs through verse 9. He uses first-person plural — identifying with the people's sin rather than standing apart. The appeal 'for the sake of your name' (lema'an shimkha) is a classic Mosaic strategy: God's reputation among the nations is at stake (cf. Exodus 32:12, Numbers 14:13-16). The word meshuvotenu ('our turnings away, backslidings') is from shuv, Jeremiah's key verb.
O Hope of Israel,
its Savior in time of distress —
why are you like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who turns aside only to spend the night?
KJV O 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?
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The title miqveh yisra'el ('Hope of Israel') doubles as a wordplay — miqveh also means 'pool of water, reservoir' (cf. Genesis 1:10), making it poignant in a drought context: Israel's reservoir has gone dry. The accusation that God acts like a ger ('stranger, resident alien') in his own land is theologically shocking — God should be the permanent resident, the landowner, but he behaves like a passing foreigner with no stake in the place. The metaphor of the overnight traveler intensifies the charge: God is merely passing through.
Why are you like someone stunned,
like a warrior who cannot save?
Yet you are in our midst, LORD,
and your name has been called over us —
do not abandon us!
KJV Why 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The word nidham ('stunned, dazed, bewildered') accuses God of being paralyzed — unable to act, like a warrior frozen in battle. This is extraordinarily bold language directed at the Almighty. The phrase shimkha alenu niqra ('your name has been called over us') is covenant-possession language — Israel bears God's name as a wife bears her husband's name. To abandon them would be to abandon his own reputation. The verb tannichenu ('abandon us') from the root n-ch-h carries the force of permanent desertion.
This is what the LORD says concerning this people:
They have loved to wander;
they have not restrained their feet.
So the LORD takes no pleasure in them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
KJV Thus 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's response to Jeremiah's prayer is blunt refusal. The verb lanu'a ('to wander, to stagger') suggests aimless, uncontrolled movement — the people wander from God not by deliberate choice but by habitual restlessness. The phrase lo chasaku ('they have not restrained') implies willing self-indulgence. The divine response switches from the intimate 'you are in our midst' to the distancing 'this people' — God refuses the closeness Jeremiah invoked.
Then the LORD said to me: Do not pray for this people for their welfare.
KJV Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This is the third and final occurrence of the intercession prohibition (cf. 7:16, 11:14). The word letovah ('for their good, for their welfare') is emphatic — Jeremiah may not even ask for minimal benefit for them. The progressive closure of intercession across these three texts represents the exhaustion of prophetic mediation. The prophet's most essential function — standing between God and the people — has been revoked.
When they fast, I will not listen to their cry. When they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Instead, I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by plague.
KJV When 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The triad of sword (cherev), famine (ra'av), and plague (dever) is Jeremiah's signature judgment formula, appearing over a dozen times in the book (21:7, 9; 24:10; 27:8, 13; 29:17-18; 32:24, 36; 34:17; 38:2; 42:17, 22; 44:13). These represent the three faces of siege warfare — military violence, starvation, and disease. God declares that neither fasting nor sacrifice will be accepted — the normal means of averting divine wrath have been rendered ineffective by persistent covenant violation.
Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Look — the prophets are telling them, 'You will not see the sword, and famine will not come upon you, for I will give you lasting peace in this place.'"
KJV Then 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.
The false prophets promise shalom — total flourishing — when God has decreed the opposite. Their use of this rich term makes the deception deeper because shalom implies God's full covenantal blessing.
Translator Notes
Jeremiah raises the defense that the people are being misled by other prophets. The exclamation ahahh ('Ah!') expresses anguished protest — Jeremiah is not making excuses but genuinely grieving the deception. The false prophets' promise of shelom emet ('true peace') directly contradicts God's announcement of sword and famine. The phrase 'in this place' (bamaqom hazzeh) refers to Jerusalem and the temple — the false prophets are promising that Jerusalem is inviolable.
Then the LORD said to me: The prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name. I did not send them, I did not command them, and I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own hearts.
KJV Then 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
God's response to Jeremiah's defense is devastating — the false prophets have no commission. Three denials ('I did not send... command... speak') systematically dismantle every possible claim to authority. The word sheqer ('falsehood, lie') is the key accusation — these are nevi'ei sheqer ('false prophets'), using God's name without his authorization. The term qesem ('divination') is particularly damning because divination was explicitly forbidden in Israel (Deuteronomy 18:10). The word elil ('worthless thing, nothing') dismisses their entire prophetic output as empty.
Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them, who say, 'Sword and famine will not come upon this land' — by the sword and by famine those very prophets will meet their end.
KJV Therefore 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:
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The punishment fits the crime with bitter irony — the prophets who denied sword and famine will die by sword and famine. The verb yittammu ('they will be consumed, they will come to an end') from the root t-m-m carries finality — total consumption. This is measure-for-measure judgment (middah keneged middah).
And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and the sword, with no one to bury them — they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.
KJV And 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The horror escalates: unburied corpses in the streets represent the ultimate disgrace in ancient Near Eastern culture, where proper burial was a sacred obligation. The catalog of victims — wives, sons, daughters — emphasizes that the false prophets' lies destroy entire families. The verb shafakhti ('I will pour out') is the same verb used for pouring out blood — God will pour their wickedness back upon them like blood poured on the ground.
And you will speak this word to them:
Let my eyes flow with tears
night and day without stopping,
for the virgin daughter of my people
is shattered with a great wound,
a grievous blow.
KJV Therefore 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The speaker shifts ambiguously — it could be God or Jeremiah weeping, or both. This deliberate blurring is characteristic of Jeremiah, where the prophet's grief and God's grief merge. The epithet betulat bat-ammi ('virgin daughter of my people') personifies Judah/Jerusalem as a young, vulnerable woman who has been violently assaulted. The word shever ('shattering, breaking') suggests a fracture so severe it cannot be repaired — the same word describes a broken bone or a shattered vessel.
If I go out to the field — there lie those slain by the sword.
If I enter the city — there are those wasting from famine.
For both prophet and priest wander through a land
they do not know.
KJV If 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verse paints a panorama of total devastation — the countryside holds the sword-slain, the city holds the famine-starved. The word tachalu'ei ('those sick with, those wasting from') emphasizes the slow agony of famine death. The final line is puzzling — sacharu el-erets velo yada'u ('they wander to a land they do not know') may mean the prophets and priests practice their trade in ignorance, or it may refer to exile, or to death as a journey to an unknown land. We preserved the ambiguity.
Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Does your soul loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us
with no healing for us?
We hoped for peace — but nothing good came.
We hoped for a time of healing — but there is only terror.
KJV Hast 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!
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Jeremiah's second intercessory prayer begins here and runs through verse 22. The emphatic infinitive hama'os ma'asta ('have you utterly, completely rejected') presses God on whether the rejection is final. The verb ga'alah ('loathe, abhor') is visceral — it suggests nausea, the reaction to something repulsive. Asking if God's nephesh ('soul, being') loathes Zion is asking whether God's deepest self is revolted by his own people. The contrast between hoped-for shalom and actual be'atah ('terror') echoes 8:15 almost verbatim.
We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD,
the iniquity of our ancestors —
for we have sinned against you.
KJV We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This is a formal confession of sin using three terms: rish'enu ('our wickedness'), avon avotenu ('the iniquity of our ancestors'), and chatanu ('we have sinned'). The inclusion of ancestral iniquity acknowledges that the current generation bears the accumulated weight of generational covenant-breaking. The verb yada'nu ('we know, we acknowledge') implies not just awareness but admission — they are not claiming ignorance.
Jeremiah appeals to the covenant as a legal instrument — God is bound by his own word. This is the same argument Moses used in Exodus 32 and Numbers 14.
The 'throne of your glory' is the temple — the place where God's weighty, tangible presence dwells on earth.
Translator Notes
Three imperatives in rapid succession create urgency: al-tin'ats ('do not despise'), al-tenabbel ('do not dishonor'), al-tafer ('do not break'). The 'throne of your glory' (kisse' kevodekha) refers to the temple in Jerusalem, God's earthly throne — Jeremiah pleads that God not bring disgrace upon his own dwelling place. The climactic appeal is to the covenant itself: berit — the binding agreement God swore. Jeremiah is essentially arguing that God cannot abandon Israel without violating his own oath.
Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Can the heavens themselves give showers?
Is it not you alone, LORD our God?
We set our hope on you,
for you have made all these things.
KJV Are 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.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The prayer ends with a theological argument: since the idols (havlei haggoyim, literally 'the vapors/vanities of the nations') cannot produce rain, and even the heavens themselves cannot give rain on their own authority, only the LORD can end the drought. The word havalim ('vapors, breaths, worthless things') is the same word Ecclesiastes uses for 'vanity' — the idols are literally nothing, hot air. The final affirmation 'you have made all these things' asserts God's sovereignty over the created order, including weather — making the drought itself a deliberate divine act rather than cosmic accident.