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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.

God first forbids the Prophet to pray for the people, as we have before seen, (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14) But we must remember what I have said before, that this prohibition is to be understood as to their exile; for as God had already decreed that the people should be banished from the promised land, the Prophet was forbidden to pray, inasmuch as that decree was immutable. It is not, therefore, a general prohibition, as though the Prophet was not allowed to ask God’s forgiveness in behalf of the whole people, or at least in behalf of the godly who still remained. The Prophet might indeed pray in a certain way for the whole people, that is, that God, being satisfied with their temporal punishment, would at length spare the miserable with regard to eternal life: he might have also prayed for the remnant; for he knew that there was some seed remaining, though hidden; nay, he was himself one of the people, and he not only knew that some true servants of God were still remaining, but he had also some friends of his own, whose piety was sufficiently known to him. God, therefore, did not strictly exclude all his prayers, but every prayer with regard to the exile which was soon to be undergone by the people.

Except we bear in mind this.circumstance, the prohibition might seem strange; for we know that it is one of the first duties of love to be solicitous for one another before God, and thus to pray for the wellbeing of our brethren. (James 5:16) It is not then the purpose of God to deprive the Prophet of this holy and praiseworthy feeling, which is necessarily connected with true religion; but his design was to shew, that it was now in vain to implore him for the remission of that punishment which had been determined.

We hence see first, that under the name of people every individual was not included, for some seed remained; and we farther see that this prohibition extended not to eternal life, but on the contrary to temporal punishment. And the demonstrative pronoun this indicates contempt or disdain, as though he had said, “What! why shouldest thou pray for a people wholly unworthy of mercy; let them perish as they deserve.” So when he says, for good — לטובה lethube, it ought also to be referred to their exile, by which he intimates, “Hope not that what has been once fixed by me respecting this people can be changed by any prayers; they must therefore suffer the punishment which they have deserved, for I will banish them from the land.”