Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

14. Drought, Famine, Sword

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

    ² “Judah mourns,
   her cities languish;
they wail for the land,
   and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
³ The nobles send their servants for water;
   they go to the cisterns
   but find no water.
They return with their jars unfilled;
   dismayed and despairing,
   they cover their heads.
⁴ The ground is cracked
   because there is no rain in the land;
the farmers are dismayed
   and cover their heads.
⁵ Even the doe in the field
   deserts her newborn fawn
   because there is no grass.
⁶ Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights
   and pant like jackals;
their eyes fail
   for lack of food.”

    ⁷ Although our sins testify against us,
   do something, LORD, for the sake of your name.
For we have often rebelled;
   we have sinned against you.
⁸ You who are the hope of Israel,
   its Savior in times of distress,
why are you like a stranger in the land,
   like a traveler who stays only a night?
⁹ Why are you like a man taken by surprise,
   like a warrior powerless to save?
You are among us, LORD,
   and we bear your name;
   do not forsake us!

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says about this people:

   “They greatly love to wander;
   they do not restrain their feet.
So the LORD does not accept them;
   he will now remember their wickedness
   and punish them for their sins.”

¹¹ Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. ¹² Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”

¹³ But I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! The prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries Or visions, worthless divinations and the delusions of their own minds. ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. ¹⁶ And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.

¹⁷ “Speak this word to them:

   “‘Let my eyes overflow with tears
   night and day without ceasing;
for the Virgin Daughter, my people,
   has suffered a grievous wound,
   a crushing blow.
¹⁸ If I go into the country,
   I see those slain by the sword;
if I go into the city,
   I see the ravages of famine.
Both prophet and priest
   have gone to a land they know not.’”

    ¹⁹ Have you rejected Judah completely?
   Do you despise Zion?
Why have you afflicted us
   so that we cannot be healed?
We hoped for peace
   but no good has come,
for a time of healing
   but there is only terror.
²⁰ We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD,
   and the guilt of our ancestors;
   we have indeed sinned against you.
²¹ For the sake of your name do not despise us;
   do not dishonor your glorious throne.
Remember your covenant with us
   and do not break it.
²² Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
   Do the skies themselves send down showers?
No, it is you, LORD our God.
   Therefore our hope is in you,
   for you are the one who does all this.

As to the words which follow, Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished or terrified? I take “terrified” for an uncultivated person, as we say in our language, homme savage ¹¹¹¹¹¹     The word נדהם, rendered “astonished,” is only found here; it is evidently a Niphal participle, and rendered, by the Septuagint “sleeping — ὑπνῶ,” — by the Vulgate, “wandering — vagus,” — by the Siyriac, “weak — imbecillis,” — by Montanus and Paginius, “astonished.” Parkhurst, after Grotius, derives it from an Arabic verb, which means to “come upon one unexpectedly,” or to overwhelm, and renders it overwhelmed, astonied. It may then be rendered, surprised. Grotius says, that it means a precipitant person, coming to the aid of one in danger, and not capable of delivering him.
   As in the former instance, “the sojourner” and “the traveler” are the same, only what is said of the latter is more specific; so it seems to be here: the man, taken by surprise, is only farther described as one who is not able on that account to save. The two verses may be thus rendered —
   8. The hope of Israel! his Savior in time of distress! Why art thou like a sojourner in the land? Or like a traveler turning aside to pass the night?
   9. Why art thou like one taken by surprise — Like a man who is not able to save? Yet thou art in the midst of us, Jehovah; And thy name, on us is it called: Do not forsake us
    — Ed. It is then added, As a giant who cannot save; that is, a strong helper, but of no skin, who possesses great strength, but fails, because he is rendered useless by his own bulk. And so the Prophet says, that it would be a strange thing, that God should be as a strong man, anxious to bring help and yet should do nothing.

After having said these things, he subjoins the contrast to which I have referred, But thou art in the midst of us, Jehovah, thy name is called on us, forsake us not We now see that the Prophet dismisses all other reasons and betakes himself to God’s gratuitous covenant only, and recumbs on his mercy. Thou art, he says, in the midst of us God had bound himself by his own compact, for no one else could have bound him. Then he says, Thy name is called on us Could the people boast of anything of their own in being thus called? By no means; but that they were so called depended on a gratuitous covenant. As then the Prophet did cast away every merit in works, and every trust in satisfactions, there remained nothing for him but the promise of God, which was itself founded on the free good pleasure of God. Let us hence learn, whenever we pray to God, not to bring forward our own satisfactions, which are nothing but filthy things, abominable to God, but to allege only his own name and promise, even the covenant, which he has made with us in his only — begotten Son, and confirmed by his blood.