Noon in a dry brook bed in the hill country: bleached stones, a dead oleander bush, heat haze over bare slopes, nobody there.

Covenant and complaint

Jeremiah 14

Where do you turn first when what you rely on dries up?

22 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

Where we are

1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessionsChapter 14
21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Drought, Famine, Sword, and Plague

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

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Jeremiah

“Judah mourns

and her gates languish.

Her people wail for the land,

and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

Jeremiah

Two servants with head cloths drawn over their heads climbing stone steps from a dry plastered cistern, carrying empty clay jars on their shoulders.

The nobles send their servants for water;

they go to the cisterns, but find no water;

their jars return empty.

They are ashamed and humiliated;

they cover their heads.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah

The ground is cracked

because no rain has fallen on the land.

The farmers are ashamed;

they cover their heads.

Jeremiah

Early light on brown bare ground: a thin doe walking away, looking back over her shoulder at a newborn fawn lying in dry stubble.

Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn

because there is no grass.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah

Wild donkeys stand on barren heights;

they pant for air like jackals;

their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

Jeremiah

Dawn just inside the gate of a walled hill town: a travelers’ night halt against the wall, trampled straw and a cold ring of fire stones, a line of sandal and hoof prints leading out through the gate onto the empty road, no one there.

O Hope of Israel,

its Savior in times of distress,

why are You like a stranger in the land,

like a traveler who stays but a night?

Jeremiah

Why are You like a man taken by surprise,

like a warrior powerless to save?

Yet You are among us, O LORD,

and we are called by Your name.

Do not forsake us!

God

This is what the LORD says about this people:

“Truly they love to wander;

they have not restrained their feet.

So the LORD does not accept them;

He will now remember their iniquity

and punish them for their sins.”

God

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

Jeremiah

“Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

God

“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.

God

Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

God

And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.

God

Evening in an empty stepped lane of Jerusalem: doors shut, a cracked water jar on a step, dust in the air, the light failing.

You are to speak this word to them:

‘My eyes overflow with tears;

day and night they do not cease,

for the virgin daughter of my people

has been shattered by a crushing blow,

a severely grievous wound.

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God

If I go out to the country,

I see those slain by the sword;

if I enter the city,

I see those ravaged by famine!

For both prophet and priest

travel to a land they do not know.’”

Question

Quick question

In the middle of the drought Jeremiah told the LORD what the other prophets were saying. Look back at 14:13.

What did the false prophets promise the people?

A Prayer for Mercy

Jeremiah

Have You rejected Judah completely?

Do You despise Zion?

Why have You stricken us

so that we are beyond healing?

We hoped for peace,

but no good has come,

and for the time of healing,

but there was only terror.

Jeremiah

We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,

the guilt of our fathers;

indeed, we have sinned against You.

Jeremiah

For the sake of Your name do not despise us;

do not disgrace Your glorious throne.

Remember Your covenant with us;

do not break it.

Jeremiah

Dark rain clouds massing over terraced hills, the first gray veil of a shower sweeping across dry terraces, the dust just darkening.

Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?

Do the skies alone send showers?

Jeremiah

Is this not by You, O LORD our God?

So we put our hope in You,

for You have done all these things.

Jeremiah 14:22

Pray

O Hope of Israel, our iniquities testify against us, yet You are among us. Act for the sake of Your name. When everything I rely on dries up, I put my hope in You, who sends the rain. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 14

0 of 52 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Is this not by You, O LORD our God? So we put our hope in You, for You have done all these things.

Jeremiah 14:22

or swipe left