JEREMIAH 14 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Drought, Famine, Sword1 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

GILL, "The word - that came - concerning the dearth - This discourse is supposed to have been delivered, after the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Concerning the dearth. We have no historic record of any dearth that may fall in with the time of this prophecy, and perhaps it does not refer to any particular dearth: but this was a calamity to which Judea was very liable. They had ordinarily very dry summers, for scarcely any rain fell from April to the middle of October; and during much of this time, the rivers were generally either very low or entirely dry. They kept the rain of the winter in tanks and reservoirs; and if little fell in winter, a dearth was unavoidable. See an account of a dearth in the time of Elijah, 1Ki_18:5, through which almost all the cattle were lost.

HENRY 1-3, "The first verse is the title of the whole chapter: it does indeed all concern the dearth, but much of it consists of the prophet's prayers concerning it; yet these are not unfitly said to be, The word of the Lord which came to him concerning it, for every acceptable prayer is that which God puts into our hearts; nothing is our word that comes to him but what is first his word that comes from him. In these verses we have,I. The language of nature lamenting the calamity. When the heavens were as brass, and distilled no dews, the earth was as iron, and produced no fruits; and then the grief and confusion were universal. 1. The people of the land were all in tears. Destroy their vines and their fig-trees and you cause all their mirth to cease, Hos_2:11, Hos_2:12. All their joy fails with the joy of harvest, with that of their corn and wine. Judah mourns (Jer_14:2), not for the sin, but for the trouble - for the withholding of the rain, not for the withdrawing of God's favour. The gates thereof, all that go in and out at their gates, languish, look pale, and grow feeble, for want of the necessary supports of life and for fear of the further fatal consequences of this judgment. The gates, through which supplies of corn formerly used to be brought into their cities, now look melancholy, when, instead of that, the inhabitants are departing through them to seek for bread in

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other countries. Even those that sit in the gates languish; they are black unto the ground, they go in black as mourners and sit on the ground, a the poor beggars at the gates are black in the face for want of food, blacker than a coal, Lam_4:8. Famine is represented by a black horse, Rev_6:5. They fall to the ground through weakness, not being able to go along the streets. The cry of Jerusalem has gone up; that is, of the citizens (for the city is served by the field), or of people from all parts of the country met at Jerusalem to pray for rain; so some. But I fear it was rather the cry of their trouble, and the cry of their prayer. 2. The great men of the land felt from this judgment (Jer_14:3): The nobles sent their little ones to the water, perhaps their own children, having been forced to part with their servants because they had not wherewithal to keep them, and being willing to train up their children, when they were little, to labour, especially in a case of necessity, as this was. We find Ahab and Obadiah, the king and the lord chamberlain of his household, in their own persons, seeking for water in such a time of distress as this was, 1Ki_18:5, 1Ki_18:6. Or, rather, their meaner ones, their servants and inferior officers; these they sent to seek for water, which there is no living without; but there was none to be found: They returned with their vessels empty; the springs were dried up when there was no rain to feed them; and then they (their masters that sent them) were ashamed and confounded at the disappointment. They would not be ashamed of their sins, nor confounded at the sense of them, but were unhumbled under the reproofs of the word, thinking their wealth and dignity set them above repentance; but God took a course to make them ashamed of that which they were so proud of, when they found that even on this side hell their nobility would not purchase them a drop of water to cool their tongue. Let our reading the account of this calamity make us thankful for the mercy of water, that we may not by the feeling of the calamity be taught to value it. What is most needful is most plentiful.JAMISON, "

K&D, "Jer_14:1-22. Prophecies on the occasion of a drought sent in judgment on Judea.

Literally, “That which was the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah concerning the dearth”drought — literally, the “withholdings,” namely, of rain (Deu_11:17; 2Ch_7:13). This word should be used especially of the withholding of rain because rain is in those regions of all things the one chiefly needed (Jer_17:8, Margin).K&D, "The Uselessness of Prayer on behalf of the People. - The title in Jer_14:1

specifies the occasion for the following discourse: What came a word of Jahveh to Jeremiah concerning the drought. - Besides here, ֲאֶׁשר ָהָיה is made to precede the ְדַבריהוה in Jer_46:1; Jer_47:1; Jer_49:34; and so, by a kind of attraction, the prophecy which follows receivers an outward connection with that which precedes. Concerning the matters of the droughts. ת Psa_9:10; Psa_10:1, might mean ,ַּבָּצָרה plur. of ,ַּבָּצרharassments, troubles in general. But the description of a great drought, with which the prophecy begins, taken along with Jer_17:8, where ַּבֹּצֶרת occurs, meaning drought, lit., cutting off, restraint of rain, shows that the plural here is to be referred to the sing. ַּבֹּצֶרת (cf. ת ַעְׁשָּתר from ַעְׁשֹּתֶרת), and that it means the withholding of rain or drought (as freq. in Chald.). We must note the plur., which is not to be taken as intensive of a great drought, but points to repeated droughts. Withdrawal of rain was threatened as a judgment against the despisers of God's word (Lev_26:19.; Deu_11:17; Deu_28:23); and

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this chastisement has at various times been inflicted on the sinful people; cf. Jer_3:3; Jer_12:4; Jer_23:10; Hag_1:10. As the occasion of the present prophecy, we have therefore to regard not a single great drought, but a succession of droughts. Hence we cannot fix the time at which the discourse was composed, since we have no historical notices as to the particular times at which God was then punishing His people by withdrawing the rain.

CALVIN, "Though the Prophet does not distinctly express that what had not yet happened was divinely revealed to him, yet it may be easily gathered that it was a prophecy with reference to what was future. Of this sterility nothing is recorded in sacred history: there is, however, no doubt but God had in an unusual manner afflicted the Jews, as previously in the days of Ahab. As then a drought was near at hand which would cause great scarcity, his purpose was to forewarn the Jews of it before the time, that they might know that the dryness did not happen by chance, but was an evidence of God’s vengeance. And we know that whenever any adversity happens, the causes of it are sought in the world, so that hardly any one regards the hand of him who smites. But when there is a year of sterility, we consult astrology, and think that it is owing to the influence of the stars: thus God’s judgment is overlooked. As then men contrive so many expedients by which they throw aside the consideration of Divine judgment, it was necessary that the Prophet should speak of the sterility mentioned here before it happened, and point it out as it were by the finger, though it was yet not made manifest.He therefore says that the word of God came to him respecting the words of restraints (103) Though דבר, deber, signifies a thing or a business or concern, yet, what seems here to be intended is the contrast between דבר, deber, the word of God, and דברים deberim, the words of men; for he says, על דברי הבצרות ol deberi ebetserut, because the Jews, as it is usual, would have many words of different kinds among themselves respecting the sterility: when anything uncommon or unexpected happens, every one has his own opinion. But the Prophet sets up the word of Jehovah in opposition to the words of men; as though he had said, “They will inquire here and there as to the causes of the scarcity; there will yet be but one cause, and that is, God is punishing them for their wickedness.”He calls sterility prohibitions or restraints: for though God could in an instant destroy and mar whatever has come to maturity, yet, in order to shew that all the elements are ready to obey him, he restrains the heavens whenever he pleases; and hence he says,“In that day the heavens will hear the earth, and the earth will hear the corn, and the corn will hear men.” (Hosea 2:21)For as this order of things is set before us, it cannot be otherwise but that, whenever we are hungry, our eyes turn to the corn and bread; but corn does not come except the earth be fruitful; and the earth cannot of itself bring forth anything, and except

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it derives moisture and strength from the heavens. So also, on the other hand, he says,“I will make for you the heaven brass and the earth iron.” )104 ) (Leviticus 26:19)We hence see the reason for this word, prohibitions, by which the Prophet designates the dryness of the heavens and the sterility of the earth; for the earth in a manner opens to us its bowels when it brings forth food for our nourishment; and the heavens also pour forth rain, by which the earth is irrigated. So also God prohibits or restrains the heavens and the earth, and closes up his bounty, so as to prevent it to come to us. It now follows —TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.Ver. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.] De rebus retentionum - that is, concerning the drought or dearth by restraint of necessary rain and moisture - unde frugum raritas, annonae caritas, fames, from which the shortage of grain made the year’s produce expensive, resulting in famine; whereupon followed a famine, as there doth also a "famine of the Word," where the divine influences are restrained. Junius rendereth it, Super verbis cohibitionum, concerning the words of cohibitions; that is, saith he, concerning the prayers made by the prophet and other good people for the diverting of God’s judgments, publicly denounced.COFFMAN, "Verse 1JEREMIAH 14THE EVENTS OF THE GREAT DROUGHTThe efforts of scholars to date this prophecy are somewhat amusing. Cook placed it "in the early years of the reign of Jehoiachim";[1] Robinson placed it vaguely in "the reign of Jehoiachim";[2] still others have opted for the closing years of Jehoiachim's reign; and some have omitted dating it altogether! "Without chronological references it is difficult to date passages like this; even references to invasions and exile are not conclusive, because there were three invasions of Judah and as many deportations."[3] A great drought is featured in this chapter; but there were many droughts in that part of the world; and there is nothing here that distinguishes this particular drought from others.Some have even tried to break up the chapter into various units, assigning a different date to each; but, as Keil noted, "Such efforts have proved to be a complete failure."[4]As we have frequently noted, the "exact date" of any or all of these prophecies is of

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very little importance. The general facts are well known.It is clear enough that the occasion of this chapter was a terrible drought that fell upon Judaea.A practical outline of the chapter is: (1) a description of the drought (Jeremiah 14:1-6); (2) Jeremiah's prayers for God's help (Jeremiah 14:7-9); (3) God's refusal to aid the apostate nation (Jeremiah 14:10-12); (4) Jeremiah's plea that the false prophets are to blame (Jeremiah 14:13-15); (5) the doom of the false prophets and the people (Jeremiah 14:16-18); (6) Jeremiah's continual plea to God (Jeremiah 14:19-22).Jeremiah 14:1-6THE GREAT DROUGHT"The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they all sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads. Because of the ground which is cracked, for that no rain hath been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads. Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh her young, because there is no grass. And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air, like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no herbage.""The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah ..." (Jeremiah 14:1). This is the title of the whole chapter and through Jeremiah 15:4, all of which deals with the same subject."They all sit in black upon the ground ..." (Jeremiah 14:2). The custom of wearing black as a token of grief or mourning was known then and might be even much older than those times. In addition to their dress and humble posture sitting upon the ground; the people are here represented as raising a mighty cry to God in heaven for relief. Throughout their history, the Jews had persistently called upon God when their troubles came upon them. "Their nobles send their little ones to the waters ..." (Jeremiah 14:3). The word rendered "little ones" here is peculiar to Jeremiah, a very rare word. Most modern scholars insist that it means "servants," "inferiors," or "employees," or "the common people."[5] However, some of the older commentators believed the reference is to little children, implying that, "Due to the drought, the servants no longer attended their lords; it was `everyone for himself'; and the lords of the society were required to employ their own children to fetch water."[6]Either interpretation shows the seriousness of the water shortage.

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"Cisterns ..." (Jeremiah 14:3).This word has the same meaning today; and for ages, such reservoirs have been used for storing water during the times of rain against anticipated shortages. The tragedy here was simply that the supply was exhausted."They cover their heads ..." (Jeremiah 14:3). "This was a sign of mourning,"[7] indicating the same thing as the black clothing did in Jeremiah 14:1."The plowmen are put to shame ..." (Jeremiah 14:4). Thompson rendered the word `plowmen' in this clause as `farmers';[8] but we fail to see any great advantage of the change. We have never known a plowman who was not a farmer. Robinson made it "tillers of the ground";[9] but that also falls short of being an improvement.The devastating nature of this drought is seen in the fact that all living things were affected by it: (1) human beings of all classes, (2) nobles, (3) servants, (4) children, (5) farmers, (6) wild animals, (7) even the ground was cracked, (8) the grass had all died, and (9) there were not even any twigs upon which the wild ass could live."Yea, the hind calved, and forsook her offspring ..." (Jeremiah 14:5). The word `hind' is an Old English word for the female of the red deer; "And this animal was regarded by the ancients as tenderly caring for her young."[10] The reason why the calf was abandoned here was the inability of the mother to produce milk due to the shortage of grass."The glazed condition of the eyes of the wild ass gives us the picture of eyes that are practically motionless because the death of the animal is near."[11]COKE, ". The word of the Lord—concerning the dearth— The drought. Taylor observes, that the chapters of this prophet, from 3: to 21: lie in regular order as to time. There is a date, chap. Jeremiah 3:6. In the days of Josiah, without mentioning the year of his reign, which, however, shews that that chapter was delivered in some part of his reign; and whereas a severe drought is mentioned in several of these chapters, this shews that they are to be laid together in the same year or years in which the drought continued; all the rest to the 21st may follow in order of time, and all might be delivered in the last years of king Josiah. See Dr. Lightfoot, and Taylor's Script. Div. p. 341. Houbigant is of opinion, that this drought happened at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, before the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem.EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY, "THE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONSJeremiah 14:1-22; Jeremiah 15:1-21 (17?)VARIOUS opinions have been expressed about the division of these chapters. They have been cut up into short sections, supposed to be more or less independent of each other; and they have been regarded as constituting a well-organised whole, at least so far as the eighteenth verse of chapter 17. The truth may lie between these

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extremes. Chapters 14, 15 certainly hang together; for in them the prophet represents himself as twice interceding with Iahvah on behalf of the people, and twice receiving a refusal of his petition, [Jeremiah 14:1-22; Jeremiah 15:1-4] the latter reply being sterner and more decisive than the first. The occasion was a long period of drought, involving much privation for man and beast. The connection between the parts of this first portion of the discourse is clear enough. The prophet prays for his people, and God answers that He has rejected them, and that intercession is futile. Thereupon, Jeremiah throws the blame of the national sins upon the false prophets; and the answer is that both the people and their false guides will perish. The prophet then soliloquises upon his own hard fate as a herald of evil tidings, and receives directions for his own personal guidance in this crisis of affairs. [Jeremiah 15:10-21; Jeremiah 16:1-9] There is a pause, but no real break, at the end of chapter 15. The next chapter resumes the subject of directions personally affecting the prophet himself; and the discourse is then continuous so far as Jeremiah 17:18, although, naturally enough, it is broken here and there by pauses of considerable duration, marking transitions of thought, and progress in the argument. The heading of the entire piece is marked in the original by a peculiar inversion of terms, which meets us again, Jeremiah 46:1; Jeremiah 47:1; Jeremiah 49:34, but which, in spite of this recurrence, wears a rather suspicious look. We might render it thus: "What fell as a word of Iahvah to Jeremiah, on account of the droughts" (the plural is intensive, or it signifies the long continuance of the trouble-as if one rainless period followed upon another). Whether or not the singular order of the words be authentic, the recurrence at Jeremiah 17:8 of the remarkable term for "drought" (Hebrews baccoreth of which baccaroth here is plur.) favours the view that that chapter is an integral portion of the present discourse. The exordium [Jeremiah 14:1-9] is a poetical sketch of the miseries of man and beast, closing with a beautiful prayer. It has been said that this is not "a word of Iahvah to Jeremiah," but rather the reverse. If we stick to the letter, this no doubt is the case; but, as we have seen in former discourses, the phrase "Iahvah’s word" meant in prophetic use very much more than a direct message from God, or a prediction uttered at the Divine instigation. Here, as elsewhere, the prophet evidently regards the course of his own religious reflection as guided by Him who "fashioneth the hearts of men," and "knoweth their thoughts long before"; and if the question had suggested itself, he would certainly have referred his own poetic powers-the tenderness of his pity, the vividness of his apprehension, the force of his passion, -to the inspiration of the Lord who had called and consecrated him from the birth, to speak in His Name.There lies at the heart of many of us a feeling, which has lurked there, more or less without our cognisance, ever since the childish days when the Old Testament was read at the mother’s knee, and explained and understood in a manner proportioned to the faculties of childhood. When we hear the phrase "The Lord spake," we instinctively think, if we think at all, of an actual voice knocking sensibly at the door of the outward ear. It was not so; nor did the sacred writer mean it so. A knowledge of Hebrew idiom-the modes of expression usual and possible in that ancient speech-assures us that this Statement, so startlingly direct in its unadorned simplicity, was the accepted mode of conveying a meaning which we, in our more complex and

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artificial idioms, would convey by the use of a multitude of words, in terms far more abstract, in language destitute of all that colour of life and reality which stamps the idiom of the Bible. It is as though the Divine lay farther off from us moderns; as though the marvellous progress of all that new knowledge of the measureless magnitude of the world, of the power and complexity of its machinery, of the surpassing subtlety and the matchless perfection of its laws and processes, had become an impassable barrier, at least an impenetrable veil, between our minds and God. We have lost the sense of His nearness, of His immediacy, so to speak; because we have gained, and are ever intensifying, a sense of the nearness of the world with which He environs us. Hence, when we speak of Him, we naturally cast about either for poetical phrases and figures, which must always be more or less vague and undefined, or for highly abstract expressions, which may suggest scientific exactness, but are, in truth, scholastic formulae, dry as the dust of the desert, untouched by the breath of life; and even if they affirm a Person, destitute of all those living characters by which we instinctively and without effort recognise Personality. We make only a conventional use of the language of the sacred writers, of the prophets and prophetic historians, of the psalmists, and the legalists, of the Old Testament; the language which is the native expression of a peculiar intensity of religious faith, realising the Unseen as the Actual and, in truth, the only Real."Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish,They are clad in black down to the ground;And the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up.And their nobles have sent their lesser folk for water;They have been to the pits, and found no water:Their vessels have come back empty;Ashamed and confounded, they have covered their heads.""Because the ground is chapt, for there hath not been rain in the land,The ploughmen are ashamed, they have covered their heads.For even the hind in the field hath yeaned and forsaken her fawn,For there is no grass.And the wild asses stand on the bare fellsThey snuff the wind like jackals

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Their eyes fall, for there is no pasturage.""If our sins have answered against us,Iahweh, act for Thine own Name sake;For our relapses are many:Against Thee have we trespassed.""Hope of Israel, that savest him in time of trouble,Wherefore wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land,And as a traveller that leaveth the road but for the night?Wherefore wilt Thou be as a man o’erpowered with sleep,As a warrior that cannot rescue?""Sith Thou art in our midst, O Iahvah,And Thy Name upon us hath been called;Cast us not down!"How beautiful both plaint and prayer! The simple description of the effects of the drought is as lifelike and impressive as a good picture. The whole country is stricken; the city gates, the place of common resort, where the citizens meet for business and for conversation, are gloomy with knots of mourners robed in black from head to foot, or, as the Hebrew may also imply, sitting on the ground, in the garb and posture of desolation. [Lamentations 2:10; Lamentations 3:28] The magnates of Jerusalem send out their retainers to find water; and we see them returning with empty vessels, their heads muffled in their cloaks, in sign of grief at the failure of their errand. [1 Kings 18:5-6] The parched ground everywhere gapes with fissures; the yeomen go about with covered heads in deepest dejection. The distress is universal, and affects not man only, but the brute creation. Even the gentle hind, that proverb of maternal tenderness, is driven by sorest need to forsake the fruit of her hard travail; her starved dugs are dry, and she flies from her helpless offspring. The wild asses of the desert, fleet, beautiful, and keen-eyed creatures, scan the withered landscape from the naked cliffs, and snuff the wind, like jackals scenting prey; but neither sight nor smell suggests relief. There is no moisture in the air, no glimpse of pasture in the wide sultry land.The prayer is a humble confession of sin, an unreserved admission that the woes of man evince the righteousness of God. Unlike certain modern poets, who bewail the

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sorrows of the world as the mere infliction of a harsh and arbitrary and inevitable Destiny, Jeremiah makes no doubt that human sufferings are due to the working of Divine justice. "Our sins have answered against our pleas at Thy judgment seat; our relapses are many; against Thee have we trespassed," against Thee, the sovereign Disposer of events, the Source of all that happens and all that is. If this be so, what plea is left? None, but that appeal to the Name of Iahvah, with which the prayer begins and ends. "Act for Thine own Name sake." "Thy Name upon us hath been called." Act for Thine own honour, that is, for the honour of Mercy, Compassion, Truth, Goodness; which Thou hast revealed Thyself to be, and which are parts of Thy glorious Name. [Exodus 34:6] Pity the wretched, and pardon the guilty: for so will Thy glory increase amongst men; so will man learn that the relentings of love are diviner affections than the ruthlessness of wrath and the cravings of vengeance.There is also a touching appeal to the past. The very name by which Israel was sometimes designated as "the people of Iahvah," just as Moab was known by the name of its god as "the people of Chemosh," [Numbers 21:29] is alleged as proof that the nation has an interest in the compassion of Him whose name it bears; and it is implied that, since the world knows Israel as Iahvah’s people, it will not be for Iahvah’s honour that this people should be suffered to perish in their sins. Israel had thus, from the outset of its history, been associated and identified with Iahvah; however ill the true nature of the tie has been understood, however unworthily the relation has been conceived by the popular mind, however little the obligations involved in the call of their fathers have been recognised and appreciated. God must be true, though man be false. There is no weakness, no caprice, no vacillation in God. In bygone "times of trouble" the "Hope of Israel" had saved Israel over and over again; it was a truth admitted by all-even by the prophet’s enemies. Surely then He will save His people once again, and vindicate His Name of Saviour. Surely He who has dwelt in their midst so many changeful centuries, will not now behold their trouble with the lukewarm feeling of an alien dwelling amongst them for a time, but unconnected with them by ties of blood and kin and common country; or with the indifference of the traveller who is but coldly affected by the calamities of a place where he has only lodged one night. Surely the entire past shows that it would be utterly inconsistent for Iahvah to appear now as a man so buried in sleep that He cannot be roused to save His friends from imminent destruction. {cf. 1 Kings 18:27, St. Mark 4:38} He who had borne Israel and carried him as a tender nursling all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9) could hardly without changing His own unchangeable Name, His character and purposes, cast down His people and forsake them at last.Such is the drift of the prophet’s first prayer. To this apparently unanswerable argument his religious meditation upon the present distress has brought him. But presently the thought returns with added force, with a sense of utmost certitude, with a conviction that it is Iahvah’s Word, that the people have wrought out their own affliction, that misery is the hire of sin."Thus hath Iahvah said of this people:

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Even so have they loved to wander,Their feet they have not refrained;And as for Iahvah, He accepteth them not";"He now remembereth their guilt,And visiteth their trespasses.And Iahvah said unto me,Intercede thou not for this people for good!If they fast, I will not hearken unto their cry;And if they offer whole offering and oblation,I will not accept their persons;But by the sword, the famine, and the plague, will I consume them.""And I said, Ah, Lord Iahvah!Behold the prophets say to them,Ye shall not see sword,And famine shall not befall youFor peace and permanence will I give you in this place.""And Iahvah said unto me:Falsehood it is that the prophets prophesy in My Name.I sent them not, and I charged them not, and I spake not unto them.A vision of falsehood and jugglery and nothingness, and the guile of their own heart,They, for their part, prophesy you.""Therefore thus said Iahvah:Concerning the prophets who prophesy in My Name, albeit I sent them not,

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And of themselves saySword and famine there shall not be in this land;By the sword and by the famine shall those prophets be fordone.And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem,Because of the famine and the sword,With none to bury them,"-"Themselves, their wives, and their sons and their daughters:And I will pour upon them their own evil.And thou shalt say unto them this word:Let mine eyes run down with tears, night and day,And let them not tire;For with mighty breach is brokenThe virgin daughter of my people-With a very grievous blow.If I go forth into the field,Then behold! the slain of the sword;And if I enter the city,Then behold! the pinings of famine:For both prophet and priest go trafficking about the land,And understand not."It has been supposed that this whole section is misplaced, and that it would properly follow the close of chapter 13. The supposition is due to a misapprehension of the force of the pregnant particle which introduces the reply of Iahvah to the prophet’s intercession. "Even so have they loved to wander"; even so, as is naturally implied by the severity of the punishment of which thou complainest. The dearth is

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prolonged; the distress is widespread and grievous. So prolonged, so grievous, so universal, has been their rebellion against Me. The penalty corresponds to the offence. It is really "their own evil" that is being poured out upon their guilty heads (Jeremiah 14:16; cf. Jeremiah 4:18). Iahvah cannot accept them in their sin; the long drought is a token that their guilt is before His mind, unrepented, unatoned. Neither the supplications of another, nor their own fasts and sacrifices, avail to avert the visitation. So long as the disposition of the heart remains unaltered; so long as man hates, not his darling sins, but the penalties they entail, it is idle to seek to propitiate Heaven by such means as these. And not only so. The droughts are but a foretaste of worse evils to come; "by the sword, the famine, and the plague will I consume them." The condition is understood, If they repent and amend not. This is implied by the prophet’s seeking to palliate the national guilt, as he proceeds to do, by the suggestion that the people are more sinned against than sinning, deluded as they are by false prophets; as also by the renewal of his intercession (Jeremiah 14:19). Had he been aware in his inmost heart that an irreversible sentence had gone forth against his people, would he have been likely to think either excuses or intercessions availing? Indeed, however absolute the threats of the prophetic preachers may sound, they must, as a rule, be qualified by this limitation, which, whether expressed or not, is inseparable from the object of their discourses, which was the moral amendment of those who heard them.Of the "false," that is, the common run of prophets, who were in league with the venal priesthood of the time, and no less worldly and self-seeking than their allies, we note that, as usual, they foretell what the people wishes to hear; "Peace (Prosperity), and Permanence," is the burden of their oracles. They knew that invectives against prevailing vices, and denunciations of national follies, and forecasts of approaching ruin, were unlikely means of winning popularity and a substantial harvest of offerings. At the same time, like other false teachers, they knew how to veil their errors under the mask of truth; or rather, they were themselves deluded by their own greed, and blinded by their covetousness to the plain teaching of events. They might base their doctrine of "Peace and Permanence in this place!" upon those utterances of the great Isaiah, which had been so signally verified in the lifetime of the seer himself; but their keen pursuit of selfish ends, their moral degradation, caused them to shut their eyes to everything else in his teachings, and, like his contemporaries, they "regarded not the work of Iahvah, nor the operation of His hand." Jeremiah accuses them of "lying visions"; visions, as he explains, which were the outcome of magical ceremonies, by aid of which, perhaps, they partially deluded themselves, before deluding others, but which were none the less, "things of naught," devoid of all substance, and mere fictions of a deceitful and self-deceiving mind (Jeremiah 14:14). He expressly declares that they have no mission: in other words, their action is not due to the overpowering sense of a higher call, but is inspired by purely ulterior considerations of worldly gain and policy. They prophesy to order; to the order of man, not of God. If they visit the country districts, it is with no spiritual end in view; priest and prophet alike make a trade of their sacred profession, and, immersed in their sordid pursuits, have no eye for truth, and no perception of the dangers hovering over their country. Their

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misconduct and misdirection of affairs are certain to bring destruction upon themselves and upon those whom they mislead. War and its attendant famine will devour them all.But the day of grace being past, nothing is left for the prophet himself but to bewail the ruin of his people (Jeremiah 14:17). He will betake himself to weeping, since praying and preaching are vain. The words which announce this resolve may portray a sorrowful experience, or they may depict the future as though it were already present (Jeremiah 14:17-18). The latter interpretation would suit Jeremiah 14:17, but hardly the following verse, with its references to "going forth into the field," and "entering into the city." The way in which these specific actions are mentioned seems to imply some present or recent calamity; and there is apparently no reason why we may not suppose that the passage was written at the disastrous close of the reign of Josiah, in the troublous interval of three months, when Jehoahaz was nominal king in Jerusalem, but the Egyptian arms were probably ravaging the country, and striking terror into the hearts of the people. In such a time of confusion and bloodshed, tillage would be neglected, and famine would naturally follow; and these evils would be greatly aggravated by drought. The only other period which suits is the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; but the former seems rather to be indicated by Jeremiah 15:6-9.PETT, "Verses 1-6The Depths Of The Series Of Droughts (Jeremiah 14:1-6).The plural for ‘droughts’ suggests that there had been a series of droughts, probably over a number of years. Such droughts did occur in Canaan from time to time and their effects could be devastating. In the days of Joseph there had been one lasting for seven years, which had caused the move to Egypt. In the days of David there was one that lasted for three years ‘year after year’ (2 Samuel 21:1) which caused great distress. In the days of Elijah there was one that lasted for three and a half years (1 Kings 17-18). Thus while, thankfully, comparatively rare, such severe droughts were not unknown.Jeremiah 14:1‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.’We are not told whether this word comes before the periods of the droughts, thus acting as a prophecy of their coming (as with Elijah - 1 Kings 17:1), or whether it came when the series of droughts were already in process with the emphasis being on the depth of the droughts and the lesson that follows.Unlike Egypt with the Nile, and Mesopotamia with its great rivers, Judah and the surrounding countries very much depended on the rains for its water (and therefore on the God of Heaven - Leviticus 26:4; Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 11:11;

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Deuteronomy 28:12). When the rains were normal water was reasonably plentiful, but when the rains were sparse then the land suffered. Thus a period of two or three years when water was really scarce could bring the land to its knees. Reserves would soon be used up, cisterns would be drunk dry and the land would soon become barren. Water would be at a premium. That was the situation being described here.

PETT, "Verses 1-10The Lesson of The Great Droughts (Jeremiah 14:1-10).As a preliminary warning of what is coming YHWH sends a great drought on Judah with the result that the cisterns are empty, the springs are dry, the pastures are bare and the ground is parched and cracked. Of course according to their then current theology it was Baal who should have ensured the supplies of rain as a result of their ritual antics before him, for he was the god of rain and storm, but they recognise that he had failed them, and that in such circumstances there was only one final port of call and that was to YHWH. So recognising it for what it was, a judgment from YHWH because of their sins (compare Leviticus 26:19 ff; Deuteronomy 11:17; Deuteronomy 28:23), the people cry to Him in a well rehearsed ritual only to discover that this time He has no intention of responding because He is sick of their wandering. In view of His past mercies it is an unexpected warning shot across their bows. Like so many they had always been confident that in the last analysis they would be able to persuade YHWH to help them even if they had rather neglected the covenant. Had He not done so in the past time and again? Now was the time for them to be pulled up short and to learn that even YHWH’s patience had its limits.The passage divides up into three parts, the first revealing the depths of the droughts (Jeremiah 14:1-6), the second reflecting their response in supposed penitence (Jeremiah 14:7-9), and the third indicating YHWH’s negative counter-response (Jeremiah 14:10).Verses 1-27Section 5. The Word Concerning The Droughts: The Certainty Of Exile For Judah (Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 17:27).The new section is again introduced by the words ‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah --’ (Jeremiah 14:1) although in slightly altered form (literally ‘that which came, the word of YHWH, to Jeremiah’.( “The word concerning the droughts” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile, although a promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is also incorporated (Jeremiah 16:14-15), but this only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 17:4).

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The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced in the observance of the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:5-27).PULPIT, "This chapter must be read in connection with the following one. They describe chiefly Jeremiah's twofold attempt at intercession (see verses 7-9 and 19-22)—a tender and appealing attempt indeed. The terrible sufferings of the people during a drought went to the prophet's heart. He even ventured, when repelled the first time, to intercede anew, on the ground of the covenant, but in vain. On receiving (Jeremiah 15:2-9) a revelation of the bitter fate in store for his people, he bursts out into a heartrending complaint that his own destiny should throw him into such a whirlpool of strife. His Lord at once corrects and consoles him (Jeremiah 15:10-21). There are doubts, however, about the connection of these latter verses—The date of the drought is not stated; but as the punishment of Judah is described as future, and no reference is made to the captivity of Jehoiachin, we shall probably be right in setting it during the reign of Jehoiakim.Jeremiah 14:1The dearth; rather, the drought, or, more literally, the droughts, the plural being used to indicate the length of time the drought lasted.BI 1-9, "They came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.The drought of nature, the rain of grace, and the lesson therefromI. First, consider that man is a very dependent creature. He is, in some respects, the most dependent creature that God has made; for the range of his wants is very wide, and at a thousand points he is dependent upon something outside of himself.

1. Man, as a living creature, is peculiarly dependent upon God as to temporals. On what a feeble thread hangs human life! Water, though it be itself unstable, is needful to the establishment of human life, and without it man expires. Many an animal can bear thirst better than man. Other creatures carry their own garments with them; but we must be indebted to a plant, or to a sheep, for the covering of our nakedness. Many other creatures are endowed with sufficient physical force to win their food in fight; but we must produce our own food from the soil. We cannot produce food from the earth without the dew and the rain. However cleverly you have prepared your soil, however carefully you have selected your seed, all will fail without the rain of heaven. Even though your corn should spring up, yet will it refuse to come to the ear if the heavens be dry. Nor can you of yourself produce a single shower, or even a drop of dew. If God withholdeth the rain, what can the husbandman do? Yes, and life itself would vanish as the food of life ceased. It would be an instructive calculation if it could be accurately wrought out—to estimate how much bread food there is at any time laid up upon the surface of the earth. If all harvests were to fail from this date; if there were no harvests in Australia during our winter, no harvests early in the year in India and the warm regions, if there were no harvests in America and in Europe, I 16

have been informed that, by the time of our own harvest months, there would be upon the face of the earth no more food than would last us for six weeks. God does, indeed, give us bread as we need it; even as, in the wilderness, He gave the manna; but we are every hour dependent upon His generous care.2. In spiritual things this dependence is most evident. The priceless blessings of pardon and grace: how can we procure them apart from God in Christ Jesus? So is it with the life and the power of the Spirit of God, by which we are able to receive and enjoy the blessings of the covenant; the Holy Spirit, like the wind, bloweth where He listeth, and the order of His working is with the Lord alone. The new life whereby we receive the Lord Jesus: how can it come to us but from the living God Himself?3. Here is the pity of it: against God, upon whom we are so dependent, we have sinned, and do sin. We are dependent upon Him, and yet rebellious against Him. If pardoned, it must be by the exercise of the sovereign prerogative which is vested in Jehovah, the Lord of all, who doeth as seemeth good in His sight. Provided it can be done justly, sovereignty may step in and rescue the guilty from his doom; but this is a matter which depends upon the will of the Lord alone. If you are executed, the condemnation is so well deserved, that not a word can be said against the severity which shall carry out the sentence.

II. Men may be reduced to dire distress. Men, being dependent upon God, may be reduced to dire distress if they disobey Him, and incur His just displeasure.1. To proceed a little in detail with the words of my text: when the Lord causes sinners to feel the spiritual drought, pride is humbled. “Their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters.” The philosopher grows into a little child, and gladly accepts the cup which aforetime he sneered at.2. But you observe that when humbled and made thirsty, these people went to secondary causes: they came to the pits, or reservoirs. Thus souls, when they are awakened, go to fifty things before they come to God. It is sad that, in superstition, or in scepticism, they look for living streams. They try reformation of manners—I have nothing to say against it; but apart from God reformation always ends in disappointment.3. If you read on, you will find that when they went to these secondary supplies, they were disappointed: “They came to the pits, and found no water.” They thirsted to drink; but not a drop was found to cool their tongues. It is an awful thing to come home from sermon with the vessels empty; to rise from the communion table, having found no living water, and return with vessels empty. To close the Bible, and sigh, “I find no comfort here, I must return with my vessel empty.” When the ordinances, and the Word yield us no grace, things have come to an awful pass with us. Do you know what this disappointment means?4. Now upon this disappointment, there followed great confusion of mind; they became distracted; “they were ashamed and confounded.” Thus have I met with many who, after going to many confidences, have been disappointed in all, and seem ready to lie down in despair, and put forth no more effort. They fear that God will never bless them, and they will never enter into life eternal; and so they sign their own death warrants. Shall I confess that I have been better pleased to see them in this condition than to hear their jovial songs at other times? It is by the gate of self-despair that men arrive at the Divine hope.

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5. At last, when these people came to despair, it is very remarkable how everything about them seemed to be in unison with their misery. Listen to the third verse: “They covered their heads.” Did you hear the last words of the fourth verse? They were the very same: “They covered their heads.” Surely the second is the echo of the first. It is even so: earth has sympathy with man. Nature without reflects our inward feelings.III. Man’s only sure resort is his God. “God is a refuge for us.”

1. There is no help anywhere else. The very best of duties that you and I can perform, if we put our trust in them, are only false confidences, refuges of lies, and they can yield us no help.2. Nay, look; according to the text there is no help for us even in the usual means of grace if we forget the Lord. O tried and anxious soul, the sacraments are all in vain, though they be ordained of heaven; and preaching and reading, liturgy and song, are all in vain to bring the refreshing dew of grace. Thou art lost, lost, lost if a stronger arm than man’s be not stretched out to help thee!3. But with God is all power. He is the Creator, making all things out of nothing; and He can create in thee at once the tender heart, the loving spirit, the believing mind, the sanctified nature.4. Well, then, what follows from this? If God hath all this power, our wisdom is to wait upon Him, since He alone can help. We draw this inference: “Therefore we will wait upon Thee.”5. Do I hear somebody say, “How I would like to pray”? Yes, that is the way to come to God. Come to Him by prayer in the name of Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Concerning the dearthI. The effects of drought upon inanimate creation.

1. The pits were empty. Some of these were natural hollows in the hard rocks and in the caves where evaporation was less speedy. Others were dykes and cisterns, the work of man. But neither nature nor art could afford supplies when God dealt with them in His judgments.2. The ground was chapt (Jer_14:4). Earth’s wounds for man’s sin. Mute mouths crying to heaven for pity.3. There was no grass (Jer_14:5). The world is complex, man is complex, God is complex. In complex systems harmony is essential to life,—discord is ruin. The shower can do nothing good without the sun. The sun can only scorch if the rain fall not. Earth can produce no fruit unless both sun and shower combine to aid.

II. The effects of drought upon the animal creation.1. The hind calved in the field, and forsook it (Jer_14:5). The fact that the hind was in the field proves that pasture had failed on the higher lands. It was not unusual for the hind to drop her calf by reason of fright or grief (Psa_29:9). The maternal instinct in these creatures being strong, it was very unusual for them to forsake their young, and can only be accounted for by the entire failure of the mother to obtain food or drink.

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2. The wild asses were in intense agony on account of hunger (Jer_14:6). These creatures were capable of great endurance, and needed but little to sustain life.III. The effects of drought upon the human creation.

1. The husbandmen were ashamed.2. The people generally were languishing.3. The nobles were threatened with death through thirst.

IV. The effects of drought on the devout heart of Jeremiah.1. He regarded it as a chastisement for sin.2. He regarded God as their only hope.3. He earnestly prayed for mercy.

Application—1. In forsaking God, they forsook the fountain.2. Earth’s broken cisterns cannot be a substitute for the Divine.3. Jesus says, “If any man thirst,” etc. (W. Whale.)

2 “Judah mourns, her cities languish;they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

BARNES, "They are black unto the ground - The people assembled at the gates, the usual places of concourse, are in deep mourning and sit humbly on the ground.

CLARKE, "The gates thereof languish - The gates being the places of public resort, they are put here for the people.They are black unto the ground - Covered from head to foot with a black

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garment, the emblem of sorrow and calamity.

GILL, "Judah mourneth,.... That is, the inhabitants of Judah; those of the house of Judah, as the Targum; these mourned because of the drought and famine that were upon the land: and the gates thereof languish; the cities of Judah, as the Targum; the inhabitants of them, which used to be supplied from the field, and out of the country; gates may be mentioned, because through the gates the provisions were brought into the city; but now none; and therefore are said to languish; or else those that sat in the gates are meant, the elders of the people, the senators, the judges, and civil magistrates; these shared in the common calamity: they are black unto the ground; that is, the inhabitants of the cities, and those that sit in the gates, their faces are black through famine; see Lam_4:8, so the Targum, "their faces are covered with blackness, they are black as a pot;'' and which they turned to the ground, and looked downwards, not being able to lift them up through the sorrow and distress they were in, and through faintness of spirit for want of food: and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up: meaning the cry and lamentation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem because of the famine, for that city was not exempted from it, it having its supply from the country; or the prayer of them, and of the people from all parts got together there, which went up to heaven for rain: it being usual, in times of common distress, for the people in the country to come up to Jerusalem to the temple to pray to God, and particularly for rain, when there was a want of it.JAMISON, "Judah mourneth,.... That is, the inhabitants of Judah; those of the house of Judah, as the Targum; these mourned because of the drought and famine that were upon the land: and the gates thereof languish; the cities of Judah, as the Targum; the inhabitants of them, which used to be supplied from the field, and out of the country; gates may be mentioned, because through the gates the provisions were brought into the city; but now none; and therefore are said to languish; or else those that sat in the gates are meant, the elders of the people, the senators, the judges, and civil magistrates; these shared in the common calamity: they are black unto the ground; that is, the inhabitants of the cities, and those that sit in the gates, their faces are black through famine; see Lam_4:8, so the Targum, "their faces are covered with blackness, they are black as a pot;'' and which they turned to the ground, and looked downwards, not being able to lift them up through the sorrow and distress they were in, and through faintness of spirit for want of food:

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and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up: meaning the cry and lamentation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem because of the famine, for that city was not exempted from it, it having its supply from the country; or the prayer of them, and of the people from all parts got together there, which went up to heaven for rain: it being usual, in times of common distress, for the people in the country to come up to Jerusalem to the temple to pray to God, and particularly for rain, when there was a want of it.K&D 2-6, "Description of the distress arising from the drought. - Jer_14:2. Judah

mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, like mourning on the ground, and the cry ofJerusalem goeth up. Jer_14:3. Their nobles send their mean ones for water: they come to the wells, find no water, return with empty pitchers, are ashamed and confounded and cover their head. Jer_14:4. For the ground, which is confounded, because no rain is fallen upon the earth, the husbandmen are ashamed, cover their head. Jer_14:5. Yea, the hind also in the field, she beareth and forsaketh it, because there is no grass. Jer_14:6. And the wild asses stand on the bare-topped heights, gasp for air like the jackals; their eyes fail because there is no herb."The country and the city, the distinguished and the mean, the field and the husbandmen, are thrown into deep mourning, and the beasts of the field pine away because neither grass nor herb grows. This description gives a touching picture of the distress into which the land and its inhabitants have fallen for lack of rain. Judah is the kingdom or the country with its inhabitants; the gates as used poetically for the cities with the citizens. Not mankind only, but the land itself mourns and pines away, with all the creatures that live on it; cf. Jer_14:4, where the ground is said to be dismayed along with the tillers of it. The gates of the cities are mentioned as being the places where the

citizens congregate. ֻאְמַלל, fade away, pine, is strengthened by: are black, i.e., mourn, down to the earth; pregnant for: set themselves mourning on the ground. As frequently, Jerusalem is mentioned alongside of Judah as being its capital. Their cry of anguish rises up to heaven. This universal mourning is specialized from Jer_14:3 on. Their nobles, i.e., the distinguished men of Judah and Jerusalem, send their mean ones, i.e., their retainers or servants and maids, for water to the wells (ֵּגִבים, pits, 2Ki_3:16, here cisterns). The Chet. ר .Keri ,ָצִעיר here and in Jer_48:4, is an unusual form for ,ָצעFinding no water, they return, their vessels empty, i.e., with empty pitchers, ashamed of their disappointed hope. ּבׁשּו is strengthened by the synonym ָהְכְלמּו. Covering the head is a token of deep grief turned inwards upon itself; cf. 2Sa_15:30; 2Sa_19:5. ָהֲאָדָמה is the ground generally. ַחָּתה is a relative clause: quae consternata est. "Because no rain," etc., literally as in 1Ki_17:7. - Even the beasts droop and perish. ִּכי is intensive: yea, even. The hind brings forth and forsakes, sc. the new-born offspring, because for want of grass she cannot sustain herself and her young. ב infin. abs. set with emphasis for ,ָעזthe temp. fin., as Gen_41:43; Exo_8:11, and often; cf. Gesen. §131, 4, a, Ew. §351, c. The hind was regarded by the ancients as tenderly caring for her young, cf. Boch. Hieroz. i. lib. 3, c. 17 (ii. p. 254, ed. Ros.) The wild asses upon the bleak mountain-tops, where these animals choose to dwell, gasp for air, because, by reason of the dreadful drought, it is not possible to get a breath of air even on the hills. Like the ַּתִּנים, jackals, cf. Jer_9:10; Jer_10:22, etc. Vulg. has dracones, with the Aram. versions; and Hitz. and Graf are of opinion that the mention of jackals is not here in point, and that, since ַּתִּנים does not

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mean dracones, the word stands here, as in Exo_29:3; Exo_32:2, for ַּתִּנין, the monster inhabiting the water, a crocodile or some kind of whale that stretches its head out of the water to draw breath with gaping jaws. On this Näg. has well remarked: he cannot see why the gaping, panting jaws of the jackal should not serve as a figure in such a case as the present. Their eyes fail away - from exhaustion due to want of wear. ֵעֶׂשב, bushes and under-shrubs, as distinguished from ֶּדֶׁשא, green grass.

CALVIN, "The Prophet intimates in these words, that so great would be the scarcity as to appear to be a manifest and remarkable evidence of God’s vengeance; for when God punishes us in a common way, we for the most part refer the event to some fortuitous circumstances, and the devil also ever retains our minds in the consideration of secondary causes. Hence the Prophet declares here that an event so unusual could not be ascribed to natural causes, as that the earth should become so sterile, but thai; it was the extraordinary judgment of God. This is the reason wily he employs so many figurative expressions. He might indeed have said, in one sentence, that there would be in the land a most grievous famine; but hardly one in a hundred would have been moved by words so simply expressed. Therefore the Prophet, in order to arouse their stupor, uses terms the most forcible.Hence he says, Mourned has Judah Though he speaks of what was future, yet, according to his own usual manner and that of others, he uses the past time in order to shew the certainty of what he said. He then declares that there would be mourning in Judah. He afterwards says, His gates have been weakened, or scattered. In mentioning gates, he takes a part for the whole, for he means the cities: but as judgments were wont to be administered at the gates, and as men often assembled there, he says that the gates would be reduced to solitude, so that hardly any one would appear there. He in the third place adds, They have become darkened to the ground, or, in plainer words, they became overwhelmed with grief; but the proper meaning of the word is to become darkened: and he says, to the ground, as though he said that they would be so cast down as to he in the dust, and would not dare to raise up their heads, nor would be able to do so, being worn down by want and famine. We hence see what he means, even this, — that the scarcity would be so great that men would be down on the ground, and in a manner seek darkness for themselves, as it is the case with us when we flee as it were from the light and he on the ground; for we then shew that we cannot enjoy the light, it being disagreeable to us: and hence we see more clearly what I have stated, — that the Prophet uses very strong terms to produce an impression on the Jews, that they might know that the earth was so sterile, not through any natural or common cause, but through the judgment of God. (105)He afterwards adds, The cry of Jerusalem has ascended Here he sets forth their despair: for in doubtful matters we are wont to deliberate and to devise remedies; but when we are destitute of any counsel or advice, and when no hope appears, we then break out into crying. We hence see that it was an evidence of despair when the cry of Jerusalem ascended; for they would not be able to complain and to disburden

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their cares and griefs by pouring them into the bosoms of one another, but all of them would cry and howl.Mourned hath Judah, And her gates, they have languished; Grieved have they for the land; And the cry of Jerusalem hath ascended.In the gates was the court of justice; there the chief men or governors assembled. The languishing belonged, not to the gates, but to those who attended them, and so the grief or lamentation. The first meaning of the verb is to be dark, to be black, but it is used to signify extreme grief or lamentation. See Psalms 35:14. As light denotes joy, so darkness is a symbol of grief or mourning. We use a similar kind of metonymy, when we say, “The court is in mourning.” The Septuagint render the verse thus, —Mourned hath Judah, And her gates have been emptied, And have become dark for the land; And the shout of Jerusalem hath ascended.Blayney’s version of the third line is as follows, —They are in deep mourning for the land.The Targum paraphrases the verb thus, — “Their faces are covered with blackness.” — Ed.

TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.Ver. 2. Judah mourneth.] The prophet’s pitiful complaint, bitterly bewailing the common calamity, and labouring thereby to bring them to a sense of the true cause of it, their sins. See 2 Samuel 21:1. {See Trapp on "2 Samuel 21:1"}And the cry of Jerusalem is gone up,] sc., To heaven, for removal of this judgment. Compare Jeremiah 36:9; Jeremiah 14:12.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:2‘Judah mourns,And its gates languish,They sit in black on the ground,And the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.’Jeremiah draws a vivid picture of the feelings of the population as they saw their

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land withering around them and struggled to find sufficient water for their families, while the hot sun continued to beat down. Judah was in mourning. Those who sat in the gates, the elders responsible for the cities and towns, were anxious and troubled. They had clothed themselves in black as a sign of their distress, whilst from the whole of Jerusalem a plaintive cry went up, ‘for pity’s sake send us rain’.PULPIT, "The tenses in the following description should be perfects and presents; the Authorized Version, by its inconsistency, destroys the unity of the picture. The gates thereof; i.e. the people assembled there. They are black unto the ground. "To be black," in Hebrew, is "to be dressed in mourning" (so e.g. Psalms 35:14, "I bowed down in black"). Here we must understand the same verb which is expressed in the psalm, "They bowed down in mourning attire to the ground." "Black," however, is not to be taken literally; it means rather "squalid, unwashed" (of garments).PULPIT, "Jer_14:2The tenses in the following description should be perfects and presents; the Authorized Version, by its inconsistency, destroys the unity of the picture. The gates thereof; i.e.the people assembled there. They are black unto the ground. "To be black," in Hebrew, is "to be dressed in mourning" (so e.g. Psa_35:14, "I bowed down in black"). Here we must understand the same verb which is expressed in the psalm, "They bowed down in mourning attire to the ground." "Black," however, is not to be taken literally; it means rather "squalid, unwashed" (of garments).

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.

BARNES, "Little ones - mean ones, the common people. The word is unique to 24

Jeremiah Jer_48:4.The pits - i. e., tanks for holding water.Covered their heads - The sign of grief.

CLARKE, "Their nobles have sent their little ones - So general was this calamity, that the servants no longer attended to their lords, but every one was interested alone for himself; and the nobles of the land were obliged to employ their own children to scour the land, to see if any water could be found in the tanks or the pits. In the dearth in the time of Elijah, Ahab the king, and Obadiah his counselor, were obliged to traverse the land themselves, in order to find out water to keep their cattle alive. This and the three following verses give a lively but distressing picture of this dearth and its effects.

GILL, "And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters,.... To places where water used to be; to the pools, the upper and the lower, particularly to the fountain of Shiloah, which, Jerom says, was the only one the city of Jerusalem used. The meaning either is, that the nobles in Jerusalem sent their own children to get water for them, they having no servants to attend them, these being put away because they could not support them, the famine being so sore; or rather that they sent their menial servants, their subjects, as the Targum renders it, to fetch them a little water to refresh themselves with: they came to the pits and found no water; their servants came according to order to the pools and cisterns, or to the deep wells, and to such places where there used to be a great confluence of water, and plenty of it, but now they could find none: they returned with their vessels empty; just as they came: they were ashamed and confounded; either the servants that were sent, or rather their masters that sent them, when they saw them come with their empty vessels; having been looking out and longing for their return, expecting they would have brought water with them for their refreshment; but to their great disappointment and confusion brought none: and covered their heads; as persons ashamed, or as mourners used to do, being full of anguish and distress because of the drought.

JAMISON, "little ones — rather, “their inferiors,” that is, domestics.pits — cisterns for collecting rain water, often met with in the East where there are no springs.covered ... heads — (2Sa_15:30). A sign of humiliation and mourning.

PULPIT, "Jer_14:3Their nobles—i.e. the upper classes of Judah and Jerusalem—have sent their little

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ones; rather, their mean ones; i.e. their servants, or perhaps (as Naegelsbach and Payne Smith) simply, "the common people;" it was not a matter concerning the rich alone. To the pits; i.e. to the cisterns. Covered their heads; a sign of the deepest mourning (2Sa_15:30; 2Sa_19:4; Est_6:12).

CALVIN, "It is then added, Their chiefs will send the common people to the waters The Prophet’s object was again to point out something extraordinary, — that the great, possessing authority, would constrain and compel the common sort to draw water. They have sent them, he says, that is, by authority; they who could command others sent them to the waters. (106) They came, he says, to the cisterns By the word גבים gabim, he means deep ditches, or pits; but some render them cisterns. With regard to the subject in hand, it signifies not; for the Prophet no doubt meant that they would come to the deepest wells or pits, as it is usually done ia a great drought; for many springs become often dry, and pits also, situated in high places; but in valleys some water remains, and there it may be had: there are also some wells ever full of water, where its abundance never fails. It was therefore the Prophet’s design to refer to such wells. They came, he says, to the wells, where they thought they could find a sufficient supply; but he adds, They found no waters; they returned with their empty vessels (107)We now perceive what I have said, — that the Prophet here reproves the Jews for their stupidity in not understanding that God was angry with them when the order of nature, which ought ever to continue the same, thus failed. Droughts indeed often happen when there are no waters in most places; but when no well supplies any water, when there is not a drop of water to be found in the most favorable places, then indeed it ought to be concluded that God’s curse is on the people, who find nothing to drink; for in nothing does God deal more bountifully with the world than in the supply of water. We do not speak now of wine; but we see fountains everywhere pouring forth waters, and rivers also flow through countries: moreover, pits are dug through the labors of men; there are also cisterns in which the rain is preserved in places that are commonly dry: but when in cisterns no water remains, and when the fountains themselves refuse any supply, we may hence surely know that it is the special judgment of God; and this is what Jeremiah intended here to shew; and therefore he says that they were confounded and ashamed, and that they covered their head It now follows —3.When their nobles sent their menials for water, They came to the reservoirs, they found no water; They brought back their vessels empty: They were ashamed and confounded, And they covered their heads.The word I render “reservoirs” means literally arches or vaults. They were places arched over to preserve water. Parkhurst thinks that the reservoirs made by King Hezekiah are intended, 2 Chronicles 32:30. That the verb שב has the meaning of bringing back is evident from Isaiah 52:8; and this is according to the Vulgate and the Septuagint in this place. Gataker and Venema think that the shame and

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confusion refer to the nobles, and not to the servants. This verse speaks of Jerusalem, the last mentioned in the former verse; and what follows refers to Judea, spoken of in the former part according to the usual manner of the prophets. — EdTRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:3 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.Ver. 3. And their nobles.] Who would be sure to have it if it were to be had.Sent their little ones.] Their boys, as they used to call their menial servants of the younger sort. See Matthew 14:2. {See Trapp on "Matthew 14:2"}To the waters.] Such as were the waters of Siloe, which only fountain, saith Jerome, Jerusalem maketh use of so long as it lasteth.To the pits,] Or, Cisterns. [Jeremiah 2:13]They covered their heads.] As close mourners do still.COKE, "Jeremiah 14:3. Little ones to the waters, &c.— Their younger ones for water. Jeremiah 14:6. The wild asses, &c.] The wild asses stood upon the cliffs. These animals are said to stand on the high places or cliffs, because in that situation the current of air is stronger and cooler than in lower places: and for the same reason it is that they are said to snuff up the air like dragons, because they are reputed to delight in cool places. The LXX. omit the words like dragons. AElian tells us, that the dragons, which are a sort of large serpents, hold their heads up during a certain space of time every day to suck in the air, and by this means reach the birds which fly near them. See AElian. Nat. Hist. lib. 2: cap. 19. Ludolf thinks that the crocodiles are here meant, which frequently raise their heads above the water to breathe, as do many other amphibious creatures. There is a passage in Virgil very similar to this of Jeremiah:——Bucula coelum, Suspiciens, patulis captavit naribus auram.The heifer, tossing high her head in air, With broader nostrils snuffs the gale afar. Georg. i. 375. WARTON.ELLICOTT, " (3) Their little ones.—Not their children, but their menial servants. The word is peculiar to Jeremiah, and occurs only here and in Jeremiah 48:4. The vivid picture of the messengers running hither and thither to all wells, and springs, and tanks, reminds us of Ahab’s search for wells or springs in the time of the great drought of his reign (1 Kings 18:5), of the “two or three cities wandering” to the one city that was yet supplied with water of Amos 4:8.The pits.—The tanks or reservoirs where, if anywhere, water might be looked for.

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Covered their heads.—The extremest sign of a grief too great to utter itself to others, craving to be alone in its wretchedness (2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:4). The student will recollect it as occurring also in the account of the painting of Agamemnon at the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, ascribed to Timanthes.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:3‘And their nobles send their lowly ones to the waters,They come to the cisterns, and find no water,They return with their vessels empty,They are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.’Even the large and wealthy households were without water. They sent their servants to their large cisterns, but they found no water there, and came back with their vessels empty, ashamed and confounded, and with their heads covered as a sign of their distress. This covering of their heads as a sign of distress is also mentioned in 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:5.We are reminded here of Ahab’s exhaustive and in depth searching of the land of Israel for sources of water during the great drought in the days of Elijah, when he had led one search party, and his chief minister the other. See 1 Kings 18:5-6.

4 The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land;the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.

BARNES, "Is chapt - Rather, is dismayed. “The ground” is used metaphorically for the people who until the ground.

In the earth - i. e., “in the land.”

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CLARKE, "The ground is chapt - The cracks in the earth before the descent of the rains are in some places a cubit wide, and deep enough to receive the greater part of a human body.

GILL, "Because the ground is chapt,.... Through the violent heat of the sun, and want of rain; or, is broken (y); and crumbles into dust. The Targum is, "because of sins, the inhabitants of the earth are broken:'' for there was no rain in the earth; this was the reason of the dearth, and of the famine, and why there was no water in the pits, and the ground was parched. It is to be understood of the land of Judea only, not of the whole earth: the ploughmen were ashamed; because they could not work the earth with their plough; were obliged to sit still, could do no work, or go on with their husbandry; nothing could be done for want of rain: they covered their heads; as before; See Gill on Jer_14:3.

HENRY, "The husbandmen felt most sensibly and immediately from it (Jer_14:4): The ploughmen were ashamed, for the ground was so parched and hard that it would not admit the plough even when it was so chapt and cleft that it seemed as if it did not need the plough. They were ashamed to be idle, for there was nothing to be done, and therefore nothing to be expected. The sluggard, that will not plough by reason of cold,is not ashamed of his own folly; but the diligent husbandman, that cannot plough by reason of heat, is ashamed of his own affliction. See what an immediate dependence husbandmen have upon the divine Providence, which therefore they should always have an eye to, for they cannot plough nor sow in hope unless God water their furrows, Psa_65:10.PULPIT, "Jer_14:4The ground is chapt. Perhaps: but it is more obvious to render, is dismayed,according to the usual meaning of the word. Words which properly belong to human beings are often, by a "poetic fallacy," applied to inanimate objects (as in Jer_14:2). In the earth; rather, in the land.Jer_14:5Even the animals starve. Yea, the hind also. The hind, contrary to that intense natural affection for which she was famous among the ancients, abandons her young.

CALVIN, "The Prophet had said, that though the whole common people were sent to the waters, yet none would be found. He now adds the same firing respecting the husbandmen. Ashamed, he says, shall be the husbandmen, for the ground shall be turned into dust, and God will pound it small. When the heavens supply moisture,

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the earth retains thus its solid character; but in a great heat we see the earth dissolving into dust, as though it was pounded in a mortar.So he says, On account of the chapt ground, because there is no rain, ashamed shall be the husbandmen, and they shall cover their heads; for sorrow shall not only seize on them, but also fin them with such shame as to make them to shun the light and the sight of men. These things were intended for the same purpose, even to make the Jews to know that they were not by chance deprived of water, but because God had cursed their land, so that it yielded them no water even for the common wants of nature. It follows —TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.Ver. 4. Because the ground is chapt.] As our hearts also are and will be, when the heaven doth not hear the earth. {as Hosea 2:21} It hath been before observed, that in the use of the ordinances, if we open our shells (our souls), the heaven will drop the fruitful dew of grace to the making of pearls of good works and solid virtue.ELLICOTT, " (4) The ground is chapt.—The word is so vivid as describing the long fissures of the soil in a time of drought that one admits with reluctance that no such meaning is found in the Hebrew word, which simply means is struck with terror. The translators apparently followed Luther, who gives lechzet—“languishes for thirst,” “gapes open with exhaustion,” and so applied to the earth, “is cracked or chapt.”As the “gates” in Jeremiah 14:2 stood for the people of the city, so the “ground” stands here as in visible sympathy with the tillers of the soil, the “plowmen” of the next clause.They covered their heads.—There is a singular, almost awful, pathos in the iteration of this description. Cities and country alike are plunged into the utter blackness of despair.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:4‘Because of the ground which is cracked,In that no rain has been in the land,The ploughmen are put to shame,They cover their heads.’And it was not only the lowly servants who had to cover their heads in distress. The ground was cracked (literally ‘was struck with terror, dismayed’), there was no rain

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on it, and the ploughmen thus ploughed in vain, also ashamed because they were producing no food for their dependants, and they too were covering their heads in distress. There was distress throughout the land in both town and countryside.

5 Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

GILL, "Yea, the hind also calved in the field,.... Or brought forth her young in the field; of which see Job_39:1, and which they sometimes did through fear, particularly when frightened with thunder and lightning; and which are common in a time of heat and drought, which is the case here; see Psa_29:9 of these sort of creatures there were great plenty in Judea and the parts adjacent. Aelianus (z) says, the harts in Syria are bred on the highest mountains, Amanus, Lebanon, and Carmel; which were mountains on the borders of the land of Canaan; and the flesh of these was much used for food by the Jews; see Deu_12:15, and forsook it; which, as it is a loving creature to its mate, so very careful of its young, and provident for it, and nourishes it, as Pliny (a) observes. The reason of such uncommon usage follows: because there was no grass; for the hind to feed upon, and so had no milk to suckle its young with; and therefore left it to seek for grass elsewhere, that it might have food for itself, and milk for its young.

HENRY 5-6, "The case even of the wild beasts was very pitiable, Jer_14:5, Jer_14:6. Man's sin brings those judgments upon the earth which make even the inferior creatures groan: and the prophet takes notice of this as a plea with God for mercy. Judah and Jerusalem have sinned, but the hinds and the wild asses, what have they done? The hinds are pleasant creatures, lovely and loving, and particularly tender of their young; and yet such is the extremity of the case that, contrary to the instinct of their nature, they leave their young, even when they are newly calved and most need them, to seek for grass elsewhere; and, if they can find none, they abandon them, because not able to suckle them. It grieved not the hind so much that she had no grass herself as that she had none for her young, which will shame those who spend that upon their lusts which they should preserve for their families. The hind, when she has brought forth her young, is said to have cast forth her sorrows (Job_39:3), and yet she continues her cares; but, as it follows there, she soon sees the good effect of them, for her young ones in a little

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while grow up, and trouble her no more, Jer_14:4. But here the great trouble of all is that she has nothing for them. Nay, one would be sorry even for the wild asses (though they are creatures that none have any great affection for); for, though the barren land is made their dwelling at the best (Job_39:5, Job_39:6), yet even that is now made too hot for them, so hot that they cannot breathe in it, but they get to the highest places they can reach, where the air is coolest, and snuff up the wind like dragons, like those creatures which, being very hot, are continually panting for breath. Their eyes fail, and so does their strength, because there is no grass to support them. The tame ass, that serves her owner, is welcome to his crib (Isa_1:3) and has her keeping for her labour, when the wild ass, that scorns the crying of the driver, is forced to live upon air, and is well enough served for not serving. He that will not labour, let him not eat.JAMISON, "The brute creation is reduced to the utmost extremity for the want of

food. The “hind,” famed for her affection to her young, abandons them.

K&D, "Jer_14:5Even the animals starve. Yea, the hind also. The hind, contrary to that intense natural affection for which she was famous among the ancients, abandons her young.

CALVIN, "Jeremiah now comes to animals: he said before, that men would be visited with thirst, and then that the ground would become dry, so theft husbandmen would be ashamed; he now says that the wild asses and the hinds would become partakers of this scarcity. The hind, he says, has brought forth in the field, which was not usual; but he says that such would be the drought, that the hinds would come forth to the plains. The hinds, we know, wander in solitary places and there seek their food, and do not thus expose themselves; for they have a natural timidity, which keeps them from encountering danger. But he says that hinds, big with young, shall be constrained by famine to come to the fields and bring forth there, and then flee away: and yet they prefer their young to their own life. But the Prophet here shews that there would be something extraordinary in that vengeance of God, which was nigh the Jews, in order that they might know that the heavens and the earth and all the elements were armed against them by God, for they had so deserved. But he says, Bring forth shall the hind, and then he adds, and will forsake its young: but why will it bring forth in the field? even because it will not find grass in the mountains, and in the woods, and in the usual places.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:5‘Yes, the hind also in the field calves,And forsakes her young, because there is no grass.The droughts were such that even the hinds, famous for their motherly instinct, abandoned their new born calves because there was no grass, and therefore no milk

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for their calves.

6 Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals;their eyes fail for lack of food.”

BARNES, "Like dragons - “Like jackals” Jer_9:11.No grass - The keen sight of the wild donkey is well known, but they look around in vain for herb.

CLARKE, "Snuffed up the wind like dragons - tannim תנים here probably means the hippopotamus, who, after feeding under the water, is obliged to come to the surface in order to take in fresh draughts of air; or it may mean the wild asses.

GILL, "And the wild asses did stand in the high places,.... To see where any grass was to be had, or where the wind blows more freely and cooly, to draw it in; as follows. The Targum renders it, "by the brooks"; and so Jarchi interprets it brooks of water; whither they came as usual to drink, and found them now dried up; and where they stood distressed and languishing, not knowing where to go for any: they snuffed up the wind like dragons: which, being of a hot nature, open their mouths, and draw in the wind and air to cool them. Aelianus (b) reports of the dragons in Phrygia, that they open their mouths, and not only draw in the air, but even birds flying. The word used for dragons signifies large fishes, great whales; and some understand it of crocodiles, who will lift up their heads above water to refresh themselves with the air: their eyes did fail; in looking about for grass; or for want of food, being quite starved and famished: because there was no grass; for their food and nourishment. With great propriety is the herb or grass mentioned, this being the proper food of asses, as Aristotle (c)

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observes; and with which agrees the Scripture; which represents them as content when they have it; and as ranging about the mountains for it when they have none; being creatures very impatient of hunger and thirst; see Job_6:5 wherefore the Greek writers surname this animal dry and thirsty; and hence the lying story of Tacitus (d), concerning Moses and the children of Israel; who, he says, being ready to perish for want of water, Moses observed a flock of wild asses going from their pasture to a rock covered with trees, and followed them, taking it for herbage, and found large fountains of water. And very pertinently are their eyes said to fail for want of food, and the sight of them grow dim, which is more or less the case of all creatures in such circumstances; but the rather is this observed of the wild ass, because, as an Arabic writer (e) suggests, it is naturally very sharp and clear sighted.

JAMISON, "wild asses — They repair to “the high places” most exposed to the winds, which they “snuff in” to relieve their thirst.

dragons — jackals [Henderson].eyes — which are usually most keen in detecting grass or water from the “heights,” so much so that the traveler guesses from their presence that there must be herbage and water near; but now “their eyes fail.” Rather the reference is to the great boas and python serpents which raise a large portion of their body up in a vertical column ten or twelve feet high, to survey the neighborhood above the surrounding bushes, while with open jaws they drink in the air. These giant serpents originated the widely spread notions which typified the deluge and all destructive agents under the form of a dragon or monster serpent; hence, the dragon temples always near water, in Asia, Africa, and Britain; for example, at Abury, in Wiltshire; a symbol of the ark is often associated with the dragon as the preserver from the waters [Kitto, Biblical Cyclopaedia].

PULPIT, "The wild asses … in the high places; rather, on the bare heights. "The wild asses," says a traveler cited by Rosenmüller," are especially fond of treeless mountains." Like dragons; render rather, like jackals (as Jer_9:11; Jer_10:22). The allusion is to the way jackals hold their head as they howl. We are told that even the keen eyes of the wild asses fail, because there was [is] no grass; rather, herbage. They grow dim first with seeking it so long in vain, and then from lack of nourishment.

CALVIN, "The same thing is said of the wild asses, And the wild asses, he says, stood on the rocks: and yet this animal, we know, can endure want for a long Lime. But the Prophet, as I have said, intended to shew that there would be in this scarcity some remarkable evidences of God’s vengeance. Stood then did the wild asses on the rocks, and thence drew in wind like serpents: for great is the heat of serpents; on account of inward burning they are constrained to draw in wind to allay the heat within. The Prophet says, that wild asses were like serpents, for they were burning with long famine, so that they were seeking food in the wind itself, or by respiration. He then adds, Failed have their eyes, for there was no grass (108)We now understand the object of this prediction: It was God’s purpose not only to foretell the Jews what was soon to be, but also to point out, as it were, by the finger,

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his vengeance, that they might not have recourse, as usual, to secondary causes, but that they might know that they suffered punishment for their sins; for the scarcity would be so extraordinary as far to exceed what was usual. It now follows —4.On account of the ground being cracked, As there has been no rain in the land, Ashamed were the husbandmen, They covered their heads:5.When also the hind was in the field, It brought forth young, and it was forsaken, Because there was no grass:6.And the wild asses, they stood on the cliffs; They drew in the wind like serpents; Fail did their eyes, Because there was no herbage— Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:6 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.Ver. 6. And the wild asses.] Secretes alias vagae libidinis in silvis, that usually course up and down the woods, and can bear hunger and thirst a long while together. (a)Snuffed up the wind like dragons.] Quorum est vehementissima spiratio ac sorbitio; who, in defect of water, can continue long by drawing in the air, as Aristotle (b) likewise testifieth of the goats in Cephalonia, that they drink not for various days together, but instead thereof gape and suck in the fresh air.ELLICOTT, " (6) The wild asses.—From the field the prophet’s eye turns to the bare hill-tops of the “high places,” and sees a scene of like distress. The “wild asses” seem turned to beasts of prey, and stand gaping for thirst, as the jackals (not “dragons”—comp. Jeremiah 9:11) stand panting for their prey. By some scholars the word is taken as meaning, like a kindred word in Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2, “crocodiles,” with their wide gaping jaws.There was no grass.—The word is not the same as that in Jeremiah 14:5, and implies a larger and ranker herbage than that on which the hind fed.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:6‘And the wild asses stand on the bare heights,They pant for air like jackals,Their eyes fail,Because there is no vegetation.’

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And it was no better in the wild. The wild asses standing on the heights in the burning sun were desperate for air and panted as though they were jackals (we would say, like a dog). In the burning sun they were becoming dehydrated, weak and feeble, with their sight failing, because there was no vegetation (although the idea may simply be that ‘their eyes failed’ because there was nothing to see).Thus the whole land was affected and the situation was becoming desperate. All their efforts to make the gods concerned about their problems had failed and so at last they began again to think about YHWH.

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.

BARNES, "Do thou it - Rather, “deal thou, act thou for Thy Name’s sake, i. e., not according to the strict measure of right and wrong, but as a God merciful and gracious.

CLARKE, "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us - We deeply acknowledge that we have sinned, and deserve nothing but death. Yet act for thy name’s sake - work in our behalf, that we perish not.

GILL, "O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,.... That we deserve such judgments to be inflicted on us; and that God is righteous in bringing them; and we are altogether undeserving of the favour now about to be asked. These are the words of the prophet interceding for his people, and confessing their sins and his own: do thou it for thy name's sake; that is, give rain; which was the thing wanted, and which none but God could give, Jer_14:22 though we are not worthy to have it done for our sakes, do it for thine own sake; for the honour and glory of thy name, of thy goodness, power, and faithfulness:

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for our backslidings are many; and so had many witnesses against them; and which shows how unworthy they were, and that they had no reason to expect the mercy on their own account; and especially as it follows: we have sinned against thee; as all sin is against God, contrary to his nature and will, and a transgression of his law; and what aggravates it is, that it is against him as a God of goodness, grace, and mercy.

JAMISON, "do thou it — what we beg of Thee; interpose to remove the drought. Jeremiah pleads in the name of his nation (Psa_109:21). So “work for us,” absolutely used (1Sa_14:6).

for thy name’s sake — “for our backslidings are so many” that we cannot urge Thee for the sake of our doings, but for the glory of Thy name; lest, if Thou give us not aid, it should be said it was owing to Thy want of power (Jos_7:9; Psa_79:9; Psa_106:8; Isa_48:9; Eze_20:44). The same appeal to God’s mercy, “for His name’s sake,” as our only hope, since our sin precludes trust in ourselves, occurs in Psa_25:11.K&D 7-8, "The prayer. - Jer_14:7. "If our iniquities testify against us, O Jahveh,

deal Thou for Thy name's sake, for many are our backslidings; against Thee have wesinned. Jer_14:8. Thou hope of Israel, his Saviour in time of need, why wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer that hath put up to tarry for a night? Jer_14:9.Why wilt Thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot help, and yet Thou art in the midst of us, Jahveh, and Thy name is named upon us - O leave us not!"The prophet utters this prayer in the name of his people (cf. Jer_14:11). It begins with confession of sore transgression. Thus the chastisement which has befallen them they have deserved as a just punishment; but the Lord is besought to help for His name's sake, i.e., not: "for the sake of Thy honour, with which it is not consistent that contempt of Thy will should go unpunished" (Hitz.). This interpretation suits neither the idea of the name of God nor the context. The name of God is the manifestation of God's being. From Moses' time on, God, as Jahveh, has revealed Himself as the Redeemer and Saviour of the children of Israel, whom He had adopted to be His people, and as God, who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and of great goodness and faithfulness (Exo_34:6). As such He is besought to reveal Himself now that they confess their backsliding and sin, and seek His grace. Not for the sake of His honour in the eyes of the world, lest the heathen believe He has no power to help, as Graf holds, for all reference to the heathen nations is foreign to this connection; but He is entreated to help, not to belie the hope of His people, because Israel sets its hope in Him as Saviour in time of need (Jer_14:9). If by withholding rain He makes His land and people to pine, then He does not reveal Himself as the lord and owner of Judah, not as the God that dwells amidst His people; but He seems a stranger passing through the land, who sets up His tent there only to spend the night, who "feels no share in the weal and woe of the dwellers therein" (Hitz.). This is the meaning of the question in Jer_14:8. The ancient

expositors take ָנָטה elliptically, as in Gen_12:8 : that stretches out His tent to pass the night. Hitz., again, objects that the wayfarer does not drag a tent about with him, and, like Ew., takes this verb in the sense of swerve from the direct route, cf. 2Sa_2:19, 2Sa_2:21, etc. But the reason alleged is not tenable; since travellers did often carry their tents with them, and ָנָטה, to turn oneself, is not used absolutely in the sig. to turn aside from

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the way, without the qualification: to the right or to the left. סּור is in use for to turn aside to tarry, to turn in, Jer_15:5. We therefore abide by the old interpretation, since "swerve from the way" has here no suitable meaning.PULPIT, "The intercession of Jeremiah begins. Do thou it; a pregnant expression, equivalent to "act gloriously" (as Psa_22:31; Isa_44:23); For thy name’s sake. Jehovah s" Name pledges him to be merciful to his people, and not to make a full end of them, even when they have offended (comp." Our Redeemer was thy name from of old" Isa_63:16).

CALVIN, "The Prophet, no doubt, intended here to exhort the Jews by his own example to seek pardon; nor does he so assume the character of others, as though he was free himself from guilt; for he was not more righteous than Daniel, who, as we find, testified that he confessed before God, not only the sins of the people, but also his own sins. (Daniel 9:4) And Jeremiah, though not one of God’s despisers, nor of the profane, who had provoked God’s wrath, was yet one of the people; and here he connects himself with them; and he did this in sincerity and not in dissimulation. But he might have prayed silently at home; why then did he make public his prayer? What was his purpose in consigning it to writing? It was that he might rouse the people, as I have already said, by his example, so that they might flee as suppliants to God’s mercy, and seek forgiveness for their sins. This then was the Prophet’s object. Thus we see that the prophecy concerning the scarcity and the famine was announced, that the people might through repentance escape the wrath of God; for we know that when God has even taken his sword he may possibly be pacified, as he is in his nature merciful: and besides, the design of all such predictions is, that men, conscious of their sins, may by faith and repentance escape the destruction that awaits them. We now then understand the design of the Prophet in this passage.He says first, Even though our iniquities testify, etc. The verb ענה, one, properly means to answer; but it means also to testify, as in this place. O Jehovah, (109) he says, there is no reason now to contend with thee, or to expostulate, or to ask why thou denlest so severely with us; let all such excuses be dismissed, for our sins testify against us; that is, “Were there no angels nor men to accuse us, our own conscience is sufficient to condemn us.” But when do our iniquities testify against us? Even when we know that we are exposed to God’s judgment and are held guilty by him. As to the reprobate, their iniquities cry to heaven, as it is said of Sodom. (Genesis 18:20) But the Prophet seems here to express something more, — that the Jews could not make evasions, but must confess that they were worthy of death.For he says, For thy name’s sake deal with us. We see that the Prophet first condemns himself and the whole people; as though he had said, “If thou, Lord, summonest us to plead our own cause, we can expect nothing better than to be condemned by our own mouths, for our iniquities are sufficient to condemn us. What then remains for us?” The Prophet takes it as granted that there was but one

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remedy, — that God would save his people for his own name’s sake; as though he had said, “In ourselves we find nothing but reasons for condemnation; seek then in thyself a reason for forgiving us: for as long as thou regardest us, thou must necessarily hate us and be thus a rigid Judge; cease then to seek anything in us or to call us to an account, but seek from thyself a reason for sparing us.” He then adds, For multiplied have our defections, and against thee have we done wickedly (110) By these words the Prophet shews that he did not formally, like hypocrites, confess sins, but really acknowledged that the Jews would have been found in various ways guilty had God dealt with them according to justice.As we now perceive the import of the words, let us learn from this passage, that there is no other way of being reconciled to God than by having him to be propitious to us for his name’s sake. And by this truth is refuted everything that has been invented by the Papists, not less foolishly than rashly, respecting their own satisfactions. They indeed know that they stand in need of God’s mercy; for no one is so blinded under the Papacy, who does not feel the secret misgivings of his own conscience: so the saintlings, who lay claim to angelic perfection, are yet self — convicted, and are by necessity urged to seek pardon; but in the mean time they obtrude on God their satisfactions and works of supererogation, by which they compensate for their sins, and thus deliver themselves from the hand of God. Now this is a remarkable passage to confute such a diabolical delirium, for the Prophet brings forward the name of God; as though he had said, “This is the only way by which we can return to God’s favor and obtain reconciliation with him, even by having him to deal with us for his name’s sake, so that he may seek the cause of his mercy in himself, for in us he can find none.” If Jeremiah said this of himself, and not feignedly, what madness is it for us to arrogate so much to ourselves, as to bring anything before God by which he may be induced to shew mercy? Let us then know that God forgives our sins, not from a regard to any compensation, but only on account of a sufficient reason within himself, that he may glorify his own name. Now follows a clearer explanation and a confirmation of this verse.Verily, our perversities, they have responded against us.The word עון means perverse or headstrong wickedness. There is an allusion in responding to a trial. “They have stood against us,” is the Septuagint. See Job 15:6. — Ed.Jehovah! deal with us for thy name’s sake: For many have been our defections,Against thee have we sinned.The Syriac renders fitly the first line, —O Lord, spare us on account of thy name.— Ed. TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:7 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

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thee.Ver. 7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us.] Though our guilty consciences bring in large rolls of indictment written against us within and without, and spread before thee.Do it for thy name’s sake.] Heb., Do. A short but pithy petition. So Jeremiah 14:9, "Leave us not."COFFMAN, "Verse 7JEREMIAH'S PRAYER FOR ISRAEL"Though our iniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name's sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of troubles, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land?, and as a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not."Some have wondered if the people of Israel themselves or Jeremiah prayed this prayer; but it appears that Jeremiah here prayed on behalf of the people, using some of the phraseology that the people were using."Work thou for thy name's sake ..." (Jeremiah 14:7). Note that the prayer is not based upon any merit of Israel, but solely upon the character of God Himself. It was the Jewish conception, first enunciated by Moses, that if God did not bless Israel, it would cause the pagan nations to declare that God was not able to bless them. It would appear that the presumption of Israel in this matter was almost incredible."As a sojourner ... as a wayfaring man ..." (Jeremiah 14:8). There is apparently in this the echo of a complaint by the people to the effect that God, instead of dwelling with Israel all the time, was like a traveling man who merely spent a night in their midst now and then. Israel expected God to bless them continually no matter what they did. After all, were not they called "God's Chosen People?" Was not he enthroned among them in that magnificent temple? "Oh, don't forsake us now, Lord; we are in trouble, and we need you!"Coupled with God's negative answer to this prayer (Jeremiah 14:10f), we have the fact that Israel admitted their sins and backsliding, all right; but they went right on sinning. Why did they call God the hope of Israel and go right on with their wickedness? They never stopped sinning for a minute. "Instead they lay the source of their troubles on God; they call him the hope of Israel, but at the same time charge him with indifference to their needs, and with impotence to help them ... Then they brazenly declare: `We are called by your name. Save us and thus redeem your reputation!' "[12]

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MACLAREN, "TRIUMPHANT PRAYERJeremiah 14:7 - Jeremiah 14:9.My purpose now carries me very far away from the immediate occasion of these words; yet I cannot refrain from a passing reference to the wonderful pathos and picturesque power with which the long-forgotten calamity that evoked them is portrayed in the context. A terrible drought has fallen upon the land, and the prophet’s picture of it is, if one might say so, like some of Dante’s in its realism, in its tenderness, and in its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all distinctions of class have vanished, and the nobles send their little ones to the well, and they come back with empty vessels and drooping heads instead of with the gladness that used to be heard in the place of drawing of water. The ploughmen are standing among the cracked furrows, gazing with despair on the brown chapped earth, and in the field the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow, and the imperious law of self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal instincts. ‘Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.’ And on every little hilltop where cooler air might be found, the once untamable wild asses are standing with open nostrils panting for the breeze, their filmy eyes failing them, gazing for the rain that will not come. And then, from contemplating all that sorrow, the prophet turns to God with a wondrous burst of strangely blended confidence and abasement, penitence and trust, and fuses together the acknowledgment of sin and reliance upon the established and perpetual relation between Israel and God, pleading with Him about His judgments, presenting before Him the mysterious contradiction that such a calamity should fall on those with whom God dwelt, and casting himself lowly before the throne, and pleading the ancient name: ‘Do Thou it! Leave us not.’It is to the wonderful fulness and richness of this prayer that I ask your attention in these few remarks. Expositors have differed as to whether the drought that forms its basis was a literal one, or is the prophet’s way of putting the sore calamities that had fallen on Israel. Be that as it may, I need not remind you how often in Scripture that metaphor of the ‘rain that cometh down from heaven and watereth the earth’ is the symbol for God’s divine gift of His Spirit, and how, on the other hand, the picture of the ‘dry and thirsty land where no water is’ is the appropriate figure for the condition of the soul or of the Church void of the divine presence. And I think I shall not mistake if I say that though we have much to make us thankful, yet you and I, dear brethren, and all our Churches and congregations, are suffering under this drought, and the merciful ‘rain, wherewith Thou dost confirm Thine inheritance when it is weary’ has not yet come as we would have it. May we find in these words some gospel for the day that may help us to come to the temper of mind into which there shall descend the showers to ‘make soft the earth and bless the springing thereof!’Glancing over these clauses, then, and trying to put them into something like order

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for our purpose, there are four things that I would have you note. The first is the mysterious contradiction between the ideal Israel and the actual state of things; the second is the earnest inquiry as to the cause; the third the penitent confession of our sinfulness; and the last, the triumphant confidence of believing prayer.I. First of all, then, look at the illustration given to us by these words of the mysterious contradiction between the ideal of Israel and the actual condition of things.Recur, for the sake of illustration, to the historical event upon which our text is based. The old prophet had said, ‘The Lord thy God giveth thee a good land, a land full of brooks and water, rivers and depths, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it’; and the startling fact is, that these men saw around them a land full of misery for want of that very gift which had been promised. The ancient charter of Israel’s existence was that God should dwell in the midst of them, and what was it that they beheld? ‘As things are,’ says the prophet, ‘it looks as if that perennial presence which Thou hast promised had been changed into visits, short and far between. Why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night?’Now, I suppose there are two ideas intended to be conveyed-the brief, transitory, interrupted visits, with long, dreary stretches of absence between them; and the indifference of the visitant, as a man who pitches his tent in some little village to-night cares very little about the people that he never saw before this afternoon’s march, and will never see after to-morrow morning. And not only is it so, but, instead of the perpetual energy of this divine aid that had been promised to Israel, as things are now, it looks as if He was a mighty man astonied, a hero that cannot save-some warrior stricken by panic fear into a paralysis of all his strength-a Samson with his locks shorn. The ideal had been so great-perpetual gifts, perpetual presence, perpetual energy; the reality is chapped ground and parched places, occasional visitations, like vanishing gleams of sunshine in a winter’s day, and a paralysis, as it would appear, of all the ancient might.Dear Christian friends, am I exaggerating, or dealing only with one set of phenomena, and forgetting the counterpoising ones on the other side, when I say, Change the name, and the story is told about us? God be thanked we have much that shows us that He has not left us, but yet, when we think of what we are, and of what God has promised that we should be, surely we must confess that there is the most sad, and, but for one reason, the most mysterious contradiction between the divine ideal and the actual facts of the case. Need we go further to learn what God meant His Church to be, than the last words that Jesus Christ said to us-’Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world’? Need we go further than those metaphors which come from His lips as precepts, and, like all His precepts, are a commandment upon the surface, but a promise in the sweet kernel-’Ye are the salt of the earth,’ ‘ye are the light of the world’-or than the prophet’s vision of an Israel

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which ‘shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord’? Is that the description of what you and I are? Have not we to say, ‘We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen’? ‘Salt of the earth,’ and we can hardly keep our own souls from going putrid with the corruption that is round about us. ‘Light of the world,’ and our poor candles burnt low down into the socket, and sending up rather stench and smoke than anything like a clear flame. The words sound like irony rather than promises, like the very opposite of what we are rather than the ideals towards which our lives strive. In our lips they are presumption, and in the lips of the world, as we only too well know, they are a not undeserved scoff, to be said with curved lip, ‘The salt of the earth,’and ‘the light of the world’!And look at what we are doing: scarcely holding our own numerically. Here and there a man comes and declares what God has done for his soul. But what is the Church, what are the Christian men of England, with all their multifarious activities, performing? Are we leavening the national mind? Are we breathing a higher godliness into trade, a more wholesome, simple style of living into society? And as for expansion, why, the Church at home does not keep up with the actual increase of the population; and we are conquering heathendom as we might hope to drain the ocean by taking out thimblefuls at a time. Is that what the Lord meant us to do? Our Father with us; yes, but oh! as a ‘mighty man, astonied,’ as He might well be, ‘that cannot save’ for the old, old reason, ‘He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.’ No wonder that on the other side men are saying-and it is not such a very presumptuous thing to say, if you have regard only to the facts that appear on the surface-men are saying, ‘wait a little while, and all these organisations will come to nothing; these Christian churches, as they are called,’and everything that you and I regard as distinctive of Christianity, ‘will be gone and be forgotten.’ We believe ourselves to be in possession of an eternal light; the world looks at us and sees that it is like a flickering flame in a dying lamp. Dear brethren, if I think of the lowness of our own religious characters, the small extent to which we influence the society in which we live, of the slow rate at which the Gospel progresses in our land, I can only ask the question, and pray you to lay it to heart, which the old prophet asked long ago: ‘O Thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not my words do good to them that walk uprightly?’ ‘Why shouldest Thou be as a mighty man that cannot save?’II. Let me ask you to look at the second thought that I think may fairly be gathered from these words, namely, that this consciousness of our low and evil condition ought to lead to very earnest and serious inquiry as to its cause.The prophet having acknowledged transgression yet asks a question, ‘Why shouldest Thou leave us? Why have all these things come upon us?’ And he asks it not as ignorant of the answer, but in order that the answer may be deepened in the consciences and perceptions of those that listen to him, and that they together may take the answer to the Throne of God. There can be no doubt in a Christian mind as

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to the reason, and yet there is an absolute necessity that the familiar truth as to the reason should be driven home to our own consciences, and made part of our own spiritual experience, by our own honest reiteration of it and reflection upon it.‘Why shouldest Thou leave us?’ Now, I need not spend time by taking into consideration answers that other people might give. I suppose that none of us will say that the reason is in any variableness of that unalterable, uniform, ever present, ever full, divine gift of God’s Spirit to His children. We do not believe in any arbitrary sovereignty that withdraws that gift; we do not believe that that gift rises and falls in its fulness and its abundance. We believe that the great reservoir is always full, and that, if ever our small tanks be empty, it is because there is something choking the pipe, not because there is anything less in the centre storehouse. We believe, if I may take another illustration, that it is with the seasons and the rotation of day and night in the religious experience as it is with them in the natural world. Summer and winter come and go, not because of any variableness in the centre orb, but because of the variation in the inclination of the circling satellite; day and night come not by reason of any ‘shadow cast by turning’ from the sun that revolves not at all- but by reason of the side that is turned to his life-giving and quickening beams. We believe that all the clouds and mist that come between us and God are like the clouds and mist of the sky, not dropped upon us from the blue empyrean above, but sucked up from the undrained swamps and poisonous fens of the lower earth. That is to say, if there be any change in the fulness of our possession of the divine Spirit, the fault lies wholly within the region of the mutable and of the human, and not at all in the region of the perennial and divine.Nor do we believe, I suppose, any of us, that we are to look for any part of the reason in failure of the adaptation of God’s work and God’s ordinances to the great work which they have to do. Other people may tell us, if they like-it will not shake our confidence-that the fire that was kindled at Pentecost has all died down to grey ashes, and that it is of no use trying to cower over the burnt-out embers any more in order to get heat out of them. They may, and do, tell us that the ‘rushing, mighty wind that filled the house’ obeys the law of cycles as the wind of the natural universe, and will calm into stillness after a while, and then set in and blow from the opposite quarter. They may tell us, and they do tell us, that the ‘river of the water of life that flows from the Throne of God and of the Lamb’ is lost in the sands of time, like the streams in the great Mongolian plateau. We do not believe that. Everything stands exactly as it always has been in regard to the perennial possession of Christ’s Spirit as the strength and resource of His Church; and the fault, dear friends, lies only here: ‘O Lord, our iniquities testify against us; our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.’Oh, let me urge upon you, and upon myself, that the first thing which we have to do is prayerfully and patiently and honestly to search after this cause, and not look to superficial trifles such as possible variations and improvements in order and machinery, and polity or creed, or anything else, as the means of changing and bettering the condition of things, but to recognise this as being the one sole cause

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that hinders-the slackness of our own hold on Christ’s hand, and the feebleness and imperfection of our own spiritual life. Dear brethren, there is no worse sign of the condition of churches than the calm indifference and complacency in the present condition of things which visits very many of us; it is like a deadly malaria wherever it is to be found, and there is no more certain precursor of a blessed change than a widespread dissatisfaction with what we are, and an honest, earnest search after the cause. The sleeper that is restless, and tosses and turns, is near awakening; and the ice that cracks, and crumbles, and groans, and heaves, is on the point of breaking up. When Christian men and women are aroused to this, the startled recognition of how far beneath the ideal-no, I should not say how far beneath, but rather how absolutely opposed to, the ideal-so much of our Christian life and work is, and when further they push the inquiry for the cause, so as to find that it lies in their own sin, then we shall be near the time, yea, the ‘set time, to favour Zion.’III. And so let me point you, in the next place-and but a word or two on that matter-to the consideration that the consciousness of the evil condition and knowledge of its cause leads on to lowly penitence and confession.I dwell upon that for a moment for one reason mainly. I suppose that it is a very familiar observation with us all that when, by God’s mercy, any of us individually, or as communities, are awakened to a sense of our own departure from what He would have us be, and the feebleness of all our Christian work, we are very apt to be led away upon the wrong scent altogether, and instead of seeking improvement and revivification in God’s order, we set up an order of our own, which is a great deal more pleasing to our own natural inclinations. For instance, to bring the thing to a practical illustration, suppose I were, after these remarks of mine, as a kind of corollary from them, to ask for volunteers for some new form of Christian work, I believe I should get twenty for one that I should get if I simply said, ‘Brethren, let us go together and confess our sins before God, and ask Him not to leave us.’ We are always tempted to originate some new kind of work, to manufacture a revival, to begin by bringing together the outcasts into the fold, instead of to begin by trying to deepen our own Christian character, and purifying our own hearts, and getting more and more of the life of God into our own spirits, and then to let the increase from without come as it may. The true law for us to follow is to begin with lowly abasement at His footstool, and when we have purged ourselves from faults and sins in the very act of confessing them, and of shaking them from us, then when we are fit for growth, external growth, we shall get it. But the revival of the Church is not what people fancy it to be so often nowadays, the gathering in of the unconverted into its fold-that is the consequence of the revival. The revival comes by the path of recognition of sin, and confession of sin, and forsaking of sin, and waiting before Him for His blessing and His Spirit. Let me put all that I would say about this matter into the one remark, that the law of the whole process is the old one which was exemplified on the day of Pentecost. ‘Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people, assemble the elders; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet; let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Yea, the Lord will be zealous for His land, and will

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pity His people; and I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.’ Brethren, to our knees and to confessions! Let us see to it that we are right in our own inmost hearts.IV. And so, finally, look at the wonderful way in which in this text of ours the prophet fuses together into one indistinguishable and yet not confused whole, confession, and pleading remonstrance and also the confidence of triumphant prayer.I cannot touch upon the various points of that as I would gladly do; but I must suggest one or two of them for your consideration. Look at the substance of his petition: ‘Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake.’ ‘Leave us not.’ That is all he asks. He does not prescribe what is to be done. He does not ask for the taking away of the calamity, he simply asks for the continual presence and the operation of the divine hand, sure that God is in the midst of them, and working all things right. Let us shape our expectations in like fashion, not being careful to discover paths for Him to run in; but contented if we can realise the sweetness and the strength of His calming and purging presence, and willing to leave the manner of His working in His own hand.Then, look at what the text suggests as pleas with God, and grounds of confidence for ourselves. ‘Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake, the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble. Thou art in the midst of us, we are called by Thy name.’There are three grounds upon which we may base our firm confidence. The one is the name-all the ancient manifestations of Thy character, which have been from of old, and remain for our perpetual strength. ‘As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts.’ ‘That which is Thy memorial unto all generations pledges Thee to the constant reiteration and reproduction, hour by hour, according to our necessity, of all the might, and the miracles, and the mercies of the past. Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake.’And then Jeremiah turns to the throne of God with another plea-’the hope of Israel’-and thereby fills his mouth with the argument drawn from the fact that the confidence of the Church is fixed upon Him, and that it cannot be that He will disappoint it. ‘Because Thou hast given us Thy name, and because Thy name, by Thy grace, has become, through our faith, our hope, Thou art doubly bound-bound by what Thou art, bound by what we expect-to be with us, our strength and our confidence.’And the final plea is the appeal to the perennial and essential relationship of God to His Church. ‘We are called by Thy name’-’we belong to Thee. It were Thy concern and ours that Thy Gospel should spread in the world, and the honour of our Lord should be advanced. Thou hast not surely lost Thy hold of Thine own, or Thy care for Thine own property.’ The psalmist said, ‘Thou wilt not suffer him that is devoted to Thee to see corruption.’ And what his faith felt to be impossible in regard to the bodily life is still more unthinkable in regard to the spiritual. It cannot be that that which belongs to Him should pass and perish. ‘We are called by Thy name, and

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Thou, Lord, art in the midst of us’-not a Samson shorn of his locks; not a wayfaring man turning aside to delay for a night; but the abiding Presence which makes the Church glad.Dear brethren, calm and confident expectation should be our attitude, and lowly repentance should rise to triumphant believing hope, because God is moving round about us in this day. Thanks be to His name, there is spread through us all an expectation of great things. That expectation brings its own fulfilment, and is always God’s way of preparing the path for His own large gifts, like the strange, indefinable attitude of expectation which we know filled the civilised world before the birth of Jesus Christ-like the breath of the morning that springs up before the sun rises, and says, ‘The dawn; the dawn,’ and dies away. The expectation is the precursor of the gift, and the prayer is the guarantee of the acceptance. Take an illustration. Those great lakes in Central Africa that are said to feed the Nile are filled with melting snows weeks and weeks before the water rises away down in Egypt, and brings fertility across the desert that it makes to glisten with greenness, and to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And so in silence, high up upon the mountains of God, fed by communion with Himself, the expectation rises to a flood-tide ere it flows down through all the channels of Christian organisation and activity, and blesses the valleys below. It is not for us to hurry the work of God, nor spasmodically to manufacture revivals. It is not for us, under the pretence of waiting for Him, to be cold and callous; but it is for us to question ourselves wherefore these things have come upon us, with lowly, penitent confession to turn to God, and ask Him to bless us. Oh, if we were to do this, we should not ask in vain! Let us take the prayer of our context, and say, ‘We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against Thee. 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.’ Be sure that the old merciful answer will come to us, ‘I will pour rivers of water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; and I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.’PETT, "Verses 7-9The People Cry To YHWH In Their Distress (Jeremiah 14:7-9).Things had come to such a pass with the effects of the droughts that the people began to visit the Temple in droves and call on YHWH. Of course, it had not been so to begin with. They had initially engaged in their usual antics in the high places on the mountains and in the cities, offering incense and seeking to stimulate the gods with their sexual activities, being confident that they would receive a response. But year after year no answer had come. The drought had continued, and at length they were brought to realise that this must be YHWH’s doing. That was why they now turned to YHWH, and why He was so sickened by their approach. For He knew that they had come to Him, not because they wanted to seek His face, but because they had reached an impasses where there was nowhere else for them to turn. He was

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simply the last resort.Jeremiah 14:7‘Though our iniquities testify against us,Do you work for your name’s sake, O YHWH,For our backslidings are many,We have sinned against you.’It is regularly at times of national emergency that men and women seek God, for then there is nowhere else to look. It was so then. It is so now. And then when the emergency is past they conveniently forget Him again. But God was not deceived, even though they gave every appearance of genuineness. They admitted that their sins testified against them, and confessed their sinfulness. They even admitted to the many times that they had backslidden in the past (while making no promises for the future). And they asked YHWH to work ‘for His Name’s sake’, in other words, in order to demonstrate that He was still their covenant God Whom they could turn to when all else failed. Sadly they saw Him as the God of last resort.SIMEON, "GOD’S NAME THE SINNER’S PLEAJeremiah 14:7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake.PRAYER is both our duty and our privilege: and God often suffers trials to come upon his people, in order to stir them up to prayer, and to manifest himself to them in a more conspicuous manner as “a God that heareth prayer.” On some occasions, indeed, he has forbidden his people to intercede with him; as when he said to Moses,“Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against these idolaters, and that I may consume them.” But, in such cases, the prohibition has not been considered as absolute, but rather in a qualified sense; as intimating only, that any petitions offered under those particular circumstances could scarcely be expected to prevail; yet as implying a permission to the person to make the attempt. Certainly Moses understood it thus; for he, notwithstanding the prohibition, besought the Lord for Israel, and enforced his petitions with the most powerful pleas; and never ceased from urging his requests, till he obtained an answer of peace [Note: Exodus 32:10-14.]. The Prophet Jeremiah, in like manner, was repeatedly forbidden to intercede for Judah and Jerusalem: “Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee [Note: Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14.].” Yet the prophet could not forbear; but urged his pleas with all imaginable tenderness and compassion [Note: ver. 7–9.]. He acknowledged, that the sins which had provoked God to anger were great and undeniable: but though he could find no excuse for Israel, he could find a plea in the

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very character of God: and therefore he entreated him to do, for his own sake, what he could not venture to ask for theirs.In respect of outward circumstances, we at this day do not resemble the Jews; yet, as sinners, we need to make the same acknowledgments, and to offer the same pleas, as are recorded in our text.Let us then, with a more immediate application of the passage to our own case, consider,I. The sinner’s acknowledgment—The prophet’s confession is precisely such as befits the world at large—[Verily, their iniquities do “testify against them, even to their face [Note: Hosea 7:10.].” Their whole lives shew that they have not the fear of God before their eyes. It is impossible to see their conduct, and not feel the force of this melancholy truth [Note: Psalms 36:1.]. If it be said, that “they cannot serve the Lord;” I reply, “They will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord [Note: Hosea 5:4-5.].” There is much which they might do, and yet will not do. They might abstain from many things which they wilfully commit; and might perform many duties which they wilfully neglect. They might put themselves into the way of receiving good to their souls, by reading the Scriptures, and other religious books, in private; by a more diligent attendance on public ordinances; and by conversation with persons capable of instructing them in the things of God. But their contempt of all religious advantages, and the determined preference given by them to the things of time and sense, clearly prove the language of their hearts to be, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.”]With too great reason, also, may it be adopted, even by the best of men—[There is doubtless an immense difference between the godly and the world at large: for whilst the world are willing slaves of sin and Satan, the godly resist to the uttermost their spiritual enemies, and maintain, on the whole, a successful warfare against them. But though “the Spirit in them lusts against the flesh, the flesh still lusts and fights against the Spirit; so that they neither do, nor can do, the things that they would [Note: Galatians 5:17.]” I would ask of all, Whether their consciences do not bear testimony, that yet there is much amiss within them; and that they have yet much to deplore, in respect of commission, and especially in sins of omission and defect? Who amongst us have not reason to confess, that, on some occasions, through impatience or inadvertence, they have been betrayed into tempers which were unbecoming their holy profession? And who, through weakness and infirmity, have not given way to sloth and negligence in the secret exercises of the closet? And who, if they compare their very best duties with the holy requirements of the Law, and the boundless obligations of the Gospel, have not reason to blush and he confounded before God? Verily, the very best amongst us may well say with the

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prophet, “Our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and, as for our iniquities we know them [Note: Isaiah 59:12.].”]But are we, therefore, without hope? By no means: for, together with these acknowledgments, we are free to offer,II. The sinner’s plea—The particular request which the prophet offered is not specified: but, in accordance with the subsequent part of his address, we may suppose it to have been for the restoration of God’s favour. For this we also may ask, not indeed on that is in us, but solely for the sake of God’s honour, and for the glory of his name.This plea is open for all—[God’s honour is deeply involved in his dealings with us. His justice and his holiness require him to manifest his abhorrence of sin, and his indignation against it: but his mercy inclines him to receive the mourning penitent, and to pardon his transgressions, however greatly they may have been multiplied against him: and if he were to spurn from his footstool a repentant sinner, he would consider himself as acting in a way that was unbecoming his divine character. He esteems the exercise of mercy as his highest glory, and his chief delight. And, when he can find nothing in his creatures to call forth, or even to justify, his kindness towards them, he takes the motive from within his own bosom, and shews mercy towards them for his own name’s sake. It was from this motive only that he brought his people out of Egypt, and conducted them in safety to the Promised Land. “Not for any righteousness of theirs” did he display his mercy towards them [Note: Deuteronomy 9:5.] but, as he repeatedly tells them, “he wrought for his name’s sake [Note: Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22.].” Seeing, then, that he has shewn such a regard for his own honour, it cannot be, but that he should be pleased when he sees a similar concern in us, and hears us urging it with him as our only plea. But that we may not found this on mere conjecture, let me refer you to an instance wherein this plea was urged exactly in the way that was most pleasing to God. On an occasion wherein God had appeared to have forsaken his people, Joshua addressed him in these memorable words: “O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name [Note: Joshua 7:8-9.]?” Here then we see, that, however much we may have provoked God to anger, and whatever reason we may have to fear that he is become our enemy, we may still approach him with this plea, and entertain a good hope that we shall find acceptance with him.]This plea shall never be urged in vain—[In the instance just mentioned, it was attended with good success. The Lord

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immediately answered Joshua, “Get thee up: wherefore liest thou upon thy face? Israel hath Sinned [Note: Joshua 7:10-11.];” and on the putting away of their sin, I will return in mercy towards them. A yet more striking instance we have in the intercession of Moses for Israel, when God had determined to consume them on account of their worshipping of the golden calf. Moses pleaded with him the oath by which he had bound himself to Abraham and his seed; and immediately “the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto them [Note: Exodus 32:9-14.].” Will not, then, the same plea be efficacious still; or rather, I should say, be, if possible, far more efficacious, now that we can plead the name of Jesus? Hear what Jesus himself has said: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it [Note: John 14:13-14.].” Here is no limitation, no exception: nay more, the very glory of God is pledged for the fulfilment of this promise, and shall be advanced in its accomplishment.]The passage, thus opened, affords me a peculiarly fit occasion to declare,1. What should be the effect of sin upon the soul—[That it should humble us, will be universally acknowledged. But to many it appears as if it were a proper ground for dejection and despondency; and more especially when it has been committed by one who has been numbered with the Israel of God. But I would wish the terms of my text to be very particularly noticed; for in them the plea is urged in the very face of all the iniquities that had been committed: “Though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake.” Here you will see that conviction of sin is, not to keep us from God, but to bring us to him. We must on no account give way to discouragement, as though our sins were too great to be forgiven, or as though it were presumptuous in such sinners to draw nigh to God. Presumptuous it would be, if we were to seek any plea from ourselves: but it cannot be so when our plea is derived from God alone. One or two passages of Scripture will place this matter in a clear and beautiful light. David prays, “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity: for it is great [Note: Psalms 25:11.].” And again, “Iniquities prevail against me: but as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away [Note: Psalms 65:3.].” Here he makes the greatness of his sins a reason for his more earnest application to God, and for his more entire affiance in him. Let us then learn a truth but little known, and a truth on which our spiritual welfare most essentially depends; namely, That sin is a just ground for humiliation, but not for discouragement. In our first conversion to God, we must come as the chief of sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in him as both able and willing to save us to the uttermost. And is there any other way for us to come to God at a subsequent period? I know of none. Whether our sins be many or few, we may come as sinners, and we must come as sinners; founding all our hopes, not on any righteousness of our own, but on the multitude of his tender mercies [Note: Psalms 51:1.]. The mercy of God is our only hope, from first to last: and though we may have changed, He changeth not: nor is the way of access to him through the Son of his love closed against us. Let me not be misunderstood, as if I meant by these

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observations to speak lightly of sin; for sin, indulged and unrepented of, will infallibly destroy the soul: but we must be aware of a legal spirit; and guard against the idea, that the possession of any personal worthiness entitles us to God’s favour, or that the want of it is a barrier to our acceptance with him. From first to last our hope is in Christ alone; and his name, as it is our only plea, so shall it be effectual, if it be urged in humility and faith. Let this, then, be remembered by every mourning soul, that sin is a ground of humiliation, but not of discouragement. It is not possible for us to be too deeply humbled: but, on the other hand, it is not possible to hold fast too strongly our hope and confidence in God.]2. What shall surely be effectual to remove it from the soul—[Prayer, fervent and believing prayer, shall infallibly succeed at last. Where do we find an instance of a weeping penitent spurned from the footstool of the Lord? Never, never did a repenting sinner pour out his cries in vain. Only we must remember the requisites of acceptable prayer. It must be humble and contrite. We must “acknowledge our iniquity,” and our desert of God’s judgments on account of it [Note: Jeremiah 3:12-13; Jeremiah 3:25.]. It must be fervent and persevering, like that of Daniel: “O my God, incline thine ear, and hear! for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken, and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God [Note: Daniel 9:18-19.]!” It must be offered solely in dependence on God’s promised mercies in Christ Jesus: “We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the. throne of thy glory, remember, break not thy covenant with us [Note: ver. 20, 21.].” The truth is, that God has solemnly engaged that “he will not cast out one who comes to him in his Son’s name [Note: John 6:37.];” and sooner shall “heaven and earth pass away, than one jot or tittle of his word shall fail.”]Verses 7-9DISCOURSE: 1052A PATTERN FOR NATIONAL HUMILIATION [Note: For a Fast-Day—Drought, &c.]Jeremiah 14:7-9. 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; 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? 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.NATIONAL humiliation is the only mean of averting national judgments: it is that which God himself has prescribed; and to which he has often given the most signal

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success. The repentance, and consequent deliverance of Nineveh, a heathen nation, stands as an encouragement to all the kingdoms of the earth. The instances of God’s regard to the united supplications of his people are so numerous, that it has ever been judged expedient to appoint days for general fasting and prayer, in seasons of great calamity. Surely such an appointment was never more necessary than now! To assist you in improving this solemn occasion, we shall propose to your imitation the Jews, who, in a season of grievous drought and famine, humbled themselves before God. In the words before us, we see,I. Their humble acknowledgments—Conscious of having merited the Divine judgments, they confessed their guilt—And may not we justly adopt their language as our own?[“We have sinned against God” as much as any people upon earth: “our backslidings have been very many,” and “our iniquities do indeed testify against us,” Look through the land; see what profaneness everywhere abounds! — — — We have indeed professed on many solemn fast-days to repent, and turn unto the Lord; but our humiliation has not survived the day appointed for it, nor has any national reformation been visible amongst us — — — If we enter, every one of us, into our own hearts, we may see an epitome of all that is passing in the world: we may say with the Psalmist, “My heart sheweth mo the wickedness of the ungodly [Note: Psalms 36:1. Prayer-Book Translation.]” — — — What ingratitude for mercies, what impenitence under sin, what unmindfulness of God’s presence, what disregard of his word, what evil dispositions, corrupt affections, and vile propensities, may be laid to our charge! — — — Let any one say, Whether these and innumerable other sins, do not testify against him — — — We would hope that there are but few amongst us who have not resolved, and for a time endeavoured, to repent: but has not our “goodness been as the morning-cloud, or the early dew that passeth away?” Have not our “backslidings been multiplied? And could we have thought, some years ago, that we should have made so small a progress in the Divine life, or, perhaps, that we should at this day have been as far from God as ever? — — — Let us then make these acknowledgments to God with most unfeigned contrition, and lie before him in dust and ashes.]With equal propriety also we may imitate,II. Their mournful expostulations—Nothing indeed can be more offensive to God than arrogant expostulations [Note: Isaiah 58:3.]; but nothing more acceptable than such as are presented with unfeigned humility—Such were those with which the Jewish penitents addressed the Lord—

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[The titles, by which they address the Deity, are expressive of the deepest reverence: God is indeed the hope, the only “hope of his people:” and he is their willing and all-sufficient “Saviour in the time of trouble.” Nor did they intend to question either his inclination or ability to save them; but only to say, Wilt thou be like a stranger that cares not for us; or like one, who, though mighty in himself, is yet, through perturbation of his mind, or the insuperable difficulty of the case, unable to afford succour? Similar expostulations were frequently used by David [Note: Psalms 44:23-26.]; and however they may at first sight appear expressive of too great familiarity, are indeed the genuine effusions of a contrite soul—]Let us approach our God in terms of like import—[To whom can we look as our “Hope,” but Jehovah? and who but he has been our “Sariour in times of trouble?” But, alas! He is at present but as “a stranger in the land, or as a mighty man that cannot save.” We have cried to him, and we are not delivered; though he has graciously interposed on some occasions, yet still we are left in deep affliction; nor can we at all divine what shall be the issue of our troubles. The greater part of us too, we fear, are no less in doubt respecting the issue of their spiritual conflicts: If they June ever cried to God, their enemies yet prevail; and it is uncertain whether they shall not finally be overwhelmed by sin and Satan. With what earnestness, then, should they look to Christ, as to “the hope set before them,” and plead with him as their Saviour in this hour of need!]But to their expostulations let us not forget to add,III. Their fervent petitions—The penitents before us seemed conscious as well of their unworthiness as of their impotency—Hence, both in their petitions and their pleas, they expressed their entire reliance upon God’s grace and mercy—[Sensible, that if God forsook them, or refused his aid, they must perish, they cried, “Leave us not!” “Do thou it” which we desire: and having no goodness or worthiness of their own to plead, they entreated him “for his name’s sake,” and because of his presence with them, and his relation to them; “Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not!”]A more excellent pattern for our imitation we cannot find—[What can we do as a nation, if God forsake us, or withhold his powerful interposition? In vain will our fleets and armies go forth to meet the enemy, if God be not with them, to succeed their efforts. But can we plead the superior piety of our nation? Is there any thing in the land so excellent, that we can urge it with God as a ground whereon we may expect his favour? Alas! the superior light of which we

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boast, and the distinguished blessings which we enjoy, have greatly aggravated our national guilt: we can therefore ask nothing but mercy, for mercy’s sake. It is true, “God is still (bleased be his name!) in the midst of us;” and while our enemies have professedly cast off their allegiance to him [Note: The time of the French Revolution.], we glory in being “called by his name.” In this view we may plead his presence with us, and his relation to us; yet not in a spirit of proud boasting, but of humble and thankful acknowledgment. And the more God is honoured in the midst of us, the more may we expect a continuance of his favour towards us.It is almost needless to observe, that, with respect to our personal necessities, we must have no other plea than that before mentioned. He must be ignorant indeed who will presume to ground his hopes upon any merit of his own; though certainly, if we belong to God, we may plead his past mercies as a ground on which we hope for the continuance and increase of them. In this manner therefore let us approach our God; and we may rest assured that our supplications shall not go forth in vain.]Application—[Let this day be truly set apart for the humbling of your souls before God — — — And let the pattern now set before you be not only approved, but imitated in all its parts. There is a day coming when we shall either look back upon our present humiliation with unspeakable comfort, or regret bitterly that we trifled with God and our own souls. Defer not then this necessary work. The nation, of which you are members, demands it of you. Whatever be your judgment with respect to politics, there can be no doubt but that you have contributed to augment the guilt of the nation, and are therefore bound to deprecate the judgments that are hanging over it. The salvation of your own souls too depends on your unfeigned repentance; and the sooner you turn to God in his appointed way, the sooner will you obtain a sense of his favour, and the brighter will be your prospects in the heavenly world. Let us all then turn to Christ, as the Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof: and however unable or unwilling to save we may have foolishly supposed him, we shall find him both “able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.”]

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?55

CLARKE, "O the hope of Israel - O thou who art the only object of the hope of this people.

The Savior thereof in time of trouble - Who hast never yet abandoned them that seek thee.Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land - As one who has no interest in the prosperity and safety of the country.And as a way-faring man - A traveler on his journey.That turneth aside to tarry for a night? - Who stays the shortest time he can; and takes up his lodging in a tent or caravanserai, for the dead of the night, that he may pursue his journey by break of day. Instead of dwelling among us, thou hast scarcely paid the most transient visit to thy land. O come once more, and dwell among us.

GILL, "O the hope of Israel,.... The author, object, ground, and foundation of hope of all good things, both here and hereafter; in whom Israel had been used to hope in times past, and had great encouragement so to do, Psa_130:7 or, "the expectation of Israel" (f); whom they looked for to come: the Saviour thereof in time of trouble; the Saviour of all men in a way of providence, but especially of the true Israel of God, of them that believe; who, though they have their times of trouble and affliction, by reason of sin, Satan, and wicked men, and other things, yet the Lord saves and delivers them out of them all in due time: why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land; or, a "sojourner" (g); who abides but for a while; and it not being his native place, is not so solicitous for the welfare of it. Jerome interprets this of Christ when here on earth, who was as a stranger, and unknown by men; see Psa_69:9 and the other characters; of the hope of Israel, and the Saviour, well agree with him, 1Ti_1:1. and as a wayfaring man; or "traveller" (h): that turnest aside to tarry for a night? that turns into an inn to lodge there for a night, and that only; and so is unconcerned what becomes of it, or the people in it; he is only there for a night, and is gone in the morning. Thus the prophet represents the Lord by these metaphors, as if he was, or at least seemed, careless of his people; and therefore expostulates with him upon it, as the disciples with our Lord, Mar_4:38.

HENRY 8-9, "Here is the language of grace, lamenting the iniquity, and complaining to God of the calamity. The people are not forward to pray, but the prophet here prays for them, and so excites them to pray for themselves, and puts words into their mouths,

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which they may make use of, in hopes to speed, Jer_14:7-9. In this prayer, 1. Sin is humbly confessed. When we come to pray for the preventing or removing of any judgment we must always acknowledge that our iniquities testify against us. Our sins are witnesses against us, and true penitents see them to be such. They testify, for they are plain and evident; we cannot deny the charge. They testify against us, for our conviction, which tends to our present shame and confusion, and our future condemnation. They disprove and overthrow all our pleas for ourselves; and so not only accuse us, but answer against us. If we boast of our own excellencies, and trust to our own righteousness, our iniquities testify against us, and prove us perverse. If we quarrel with God as dealing unjustly or unkindly with us in afflicting us, our iniquities testify against us that we do him wrong; “for our backslidings are many and our revolts are great, whereby we have sinned against thee - too numerous to be concealed, for they are many, too heinous to be excused, for they are against thee.” 2. Mercy is earnestly begged: “Though our iniquities testify against us, and against the granting of the favour which the necessity of our case calls for, yet do thou it.” They do not say particularly what they would have done; but, as becomes penitents and beggars, they refer the matter to God: “Do with us as thou thinkest fit,” Jdg_10:15. Not, Do thou it in this way or at this time, but “Do thou it for thy name's sake; do that which will be most for the glory of thy name.” Note, Our best pleas in prayer are those that are fetched from the glory of God's own name. “Lord, do it, that they mercy may be magnified, thy promise fulfilled, and thy interest in the world kept up; we have nothing to plead in ourselves, but every thing in thee.” There is another petition in this prayer, and it is a very modest one (Jer_14:9): “Leave us not, withdraw not thy favour and presence.” Note, We should dread and deprecate God's departure from us more than the removal of any or all our creature-comforts. 3. Their relation to God, their interest in him, and their expectations from him grounded thereupon, are most pathetically pleaded with him, Jer_14:8, Jer_14:9. (1.) They look upon him as one they have reason to think should deliver them when they are in distress, yea, though their iniquities testify against them; for in him mercy has often rejoiced against judgment. The prophet, like Moses of old, is willing to make the best he can of the case of his people, and therefore, though he must own that they have sinned many a great sin (Exo_32:31), yet he pleads, Thou art the hope of Israel. God has encouraged his people to hope in him; in calling himself so often the God of Israel, the rock of Israel, and the Holy One of Israel, he has made himself the hope of Israel. He has given Israel his word to hope in, and caused them to hope in it; and there are those yet in Israel that make God alone their hope, and expect he will be their Saviour in time of trouble, and they look not for salvation in any other; “Thou hast many a time been such, in the time of their extremity.” Note, Since God is his people's all-sufficient Saviour, they ought to hope in him in their greatest straits; and, since he is their only Saviour, they ought to hope in him alone. They plead likewise, “Thou art in the midst of us; we have the special tokens of thy presence with us, thy temple, thy ark, thy oracles, and we are called by the name, the Israel of God; and therefore we have reason to hope thou wilt not leave us; we are thine, save us. Thy name is called upon us, and therefore what evils we are under reflect dishonour upon thee, as if thou wert not able to relieve thy own.” The prophet had often told the people that their profession of religion would not protect them from the judgments of God; yet here he pleads it with God, as Moses, Exo_32:11. Even this may go far as to temporal punishments with a God of mercy. Valeat quantum valere potest - Let the plea avail as far as is proper. (2.) It therefore grieves them to think that he does not appear for their deliverance; and, though they do not charge it upon him as unrighteous, they humbly plead it with him why he should be 57

gracious, for the glory of his own name. For otherwise he will seem, [1.] Unconcerned for his own people: What will the Egyptians say? they will say, “Israel's hope and Saviour does not mind them; he has become as a stranger in the land, that does not at all interest himself in its interests; his temple, which he called his rest for ever, is no more so, but he is in it as a wayfaring man, that turns aside to tarry but for a night in an inn, which he never enquires into the affairs of, nor is in any care about.” Though God never is, yet he sometimes seems to be, as if he cared not what became of his church: Christ slept when his disciples were in storm. [2.] Incapable of giving them any relief. The enemies once said, Because the Lord was not able to bring his people to Canaan, he let them perish in the wilderness (Num_14:16); so now they will say, “Either his wisdom or his power fails him; either he is as a man astonished (who, though he has the reason of a man, yet, being astonished, is quite at a loss and at his wits' end) or as a mighty manwho is overpowered by such as are more mighty, and therefore cannot save; though mighty, yet a man, and therefore having his power limited.” Either of these would be a most insufferable reproach to the divine perfections; and therefore, why has the God that we are sure is in the midst of us become as a stranger? Why does the almighty God seem as if he were no more than a mighty man, who, when he is astonished, though he would, yet cannot save? It becomes us in prayer to show ourselves concerned more for God's glory than for our own comfort. Lord, what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

JAMISON, "The reference is, not to the faith of Israel which had almost ceased, but to the promise and everlasting covenant of God. None but the true Israel make God their “hope.” (Jer_17:13).

turneth aside to tarry — The traveler cares little for the land he tarries but a night in; but Thou hast promised to dwell always in the midst of Thy people (2Ch_33:7, 2Ch_33:8). Maurer translates, “spreadeth,” namely, his tent.PULPIT, "Jer_14:8How pathetic a supplication! Jehovah will surely not be as a stranger in the land—the strangers, or" sojourners," like the μέτοικοι, enjoyed no civic rights, and consequently had no interest in the highest concerns of the state, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside—or perhaps, pitcketh his tent; for the traveler in Palestine doubtless carried his tent with him then as now—to tarry for a night. With the latter figure compare the beautiful comparison of the hope of the ungodly to "the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day" (Wis. 5:14).

CALVIN, "I have said that the former verse is confirmed by these words; for since the Prophet mentions to God his own name, we must consider the cause of the confidence with which he was supported, which was even this, — because God had chosen that people, and promised that they should be to him a peculiar people. It is then on the ground of that covenant that the Prophet now prays God to glorify his name; such a prayer could not have been made for heathen nations. We hence perceive how the Prophet dared so to introduce God’s name, as to say, Deal with us for thy name’s sake

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He calls God, in the next place, the hope of Israel; not that the Israelites relied on him as they ought to have done, for the ten tribes had long before revolted from him, and so great a corruption had also prevailed in Judah, that hardly one in a thousand could be deemed faithful. Hope then among the people had become extinct; but the Prophet here regards the perpetuity of the covenant, as though he had said, “Even though we are unworthy to be protected by thee, yet as thou hast promised to be always ready to bring us help, thou art our hope. In short, the word hope or expectation, is to be referred to God’s promise, and to the constancy of his faithfulness, and not to the faithfulness of men, which did not exist, at least it was very small and in very few.To the same purpose he adds, His Savior in time of trouble He had in view the many proofs by which God had manifested his power in the preservation of the faithful. And he expressly mentions trouble or distress, as though he had said, that the aid of God had been known by evidences sufficiently clear; for had the people never wanted his help, his favor would have been less evident; but as they had been often reduced to great straits, the bounty and the power of God had become more manifest by delivering them from extreme dangers.It is then added, Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land? as a traveler, who turns aside for a short time in his journey to pass the night? Here must be noticed a contrast between a stranger and one that is stationary, spoken of afterwards. God would have his name to be invoked in Judea; it was therefore necessary that his favor should continue there; and hence he called the land his rest, and he had also promised by Moses that he would ever be in the midst of his people. The Prophet no doubt had taken from the law what he relates here, Thou art in the midst of us, Jehovah, thy name is called on us He therefore reasons from what seemed inconsistent, that he might obtain pardon from God; for if he was inexorable, his covenant would have failed and perished, which would have been unreasonable, and could not indeed have been possible. Hence he says, “Lord, why shouldest thou be as a stranger and as a traveler, who seeks only a lodging for one night, and then goes forward?” God had promised, as I have already said, that he would rest perpetually in the land, that he would be a God to the people; it, was not then consistent with the covenant that God should pass as a stranger through the land. As he had then formerly defended the Jews, and made them safe and secure even in the greatest dangers, so the Prophet now says, that it was right that he should he consistent with himself and continue ever the same.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:8 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?Ver. 8. O the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof.] In prayer, to pitch upon such of God’s attributes as wherein we may see an answer, is a high point of heavenly wisdom.

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Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land?] As a stranger at home, and as one that is loath to be too busy in aliena republica, in a foreign land where he hath least to do.That turneth aside.] Into some diversorium - inn.COKE, "Jeremiah 14:8. As a stranger in the land— Strangers are supposed to ransack and plunder a land of its riches; and a wayfaring-man, or traveller, to have little or no regard for it. The prophet's meaning therefore is, that the Lord seemed to have as little regard for Judah, as a hostile stranger, who would endeavour to ruin it; or as a traveller, for the place where he lodged only one night, without expecting ever to see it again. The opposition is between God, who had his dwelling in the midst of Judaea in the temple, and a passing traveller. See Calmet and Houbigant.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:8‘O you hope of Israel,Its Saviour in the time of trouble,Why should you be as a sojourner in the land,And as a traveller who turns aside to stay for a night?They acknowledged now that they recognised Him as ‘the hope of Israel’ (something that had been slipping their mind for years) and as their ‘Saviour in time of trouble’(when all else failed and everyone else to whom they had been giving glory let them down). Both thoughts would, of course, have been true if they had been faithful to Him. But addressed to One Whom they had forgotten for years it had a hollow ring to it. Then they asked Him why He should act like a passing traveller, or a resident alien, when surely Jerusalem was His dwellingplace. It was language designed to flatter or to persuade YHWH of what was His duty because He was the God of Israel. There was no genuine repentance or submission in it. They wanted Him while it was convenient and there was a drought to get rid of.PULPIT, "How pathetic a supplication! Jehovah will surely not be as a stranger in the land—the strangers, or" sojourners," like the פןיךןיו́ל , enjoyed no civic rights, and consequently had no interest in the highest concerns of the state, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside—or perhaps, pitcketh his tent; for the traveler in Palestine doubtless carried his tent with him then as now—to tarry for a night. With the latter figure compare the beautiful comparison of the hope of the ungodly to "the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day" (Wis. 5:14).

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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!

BARNES, "Astonied - The word may possibly mean “one who is taken by surprise and loses his presence of mind.”

CLARKE, "Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us - Thy ark, temple, and sacred rites, are all here; and thou thyself, who art every where present, art here also: but alas! thou dost not reveal thyself as the Father of mercies, who forgivest iniquity, transgression, and sin.

We are called by thy name; leave us not - Let us call thee our Father, and say thou to us, “Ye are my sons and daughters!” O leave us not!

GILL, "Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied,.... Astonished, and so surprised as not to know what to say or do; or "asleep", as the Septuagint; taking no notice of us, and being altogether unconcerned what becomes of us; or, as one "dumb" (i); that will give no answer to our prayers: as a mighty man that cannot save? who, though he is able to save, yet, through want of a heart or will, does not exert his power: yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us; having his residence and dwelling in the temple at Jerusalem; and therefore was not a stranger and foreigner among them; and this carries in it an entreaty and an argument that he would not in his providence conduct towards them in such manner as though he was: and we are called by thy name; the people of God, the Israel of God, and the like: leave us not; in our distress and trouble, but deliver us out of it.

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JAMISON, "astonied — like a “mighty man,” at other times able to help (Isa_59:1), but now stunned by a sudden calamity so as to disappoint the hopes drawn from him.

art in the midst of us — (Exo_29:45, Exo_29:46; Lev_26:11, Lev_26:12).called by thy name — (Dan_9:18, Dan_9:19) as Thine own peculiar people (Deu_9:29).

K&D, "The pleader makes further appeal to God's almighty power. It is impossible that Jahveh can let Himself look like a man at his wit's end or a nerveless warrior, as He would seem to be if He should not give help to His people in their present need. Since the time of A. Schultens the ἁπ. λεγ. ִנְדָהם is rendered, after the Arab. dahama, to make an unforeseen attack, by stupefactus, attonitus, one who, by reason of a suddenmischance, has lost his presence of mind and is helpless. This is in keeping with the next comparison, that with a warrior who has no strength to help. The passage closes with an appeal to the relation of grace which Jahveh sustains towards His people. ְוַאָּתה comes in adversatively: yet art Thou in our midst, i.e., present to Thy people. Thy name is named upon us, i.e., Thou hast revealed Thyself to us in Thy being as God of salvation; see on Jer_7:10. ַאל־ַּתִּנֵחנּו, lit., lay us not down, i.e., let us not sink.PULPIT, "Jer_14:9As a man astonished; rather (comparing the Arabic dahama), as one struck dumb. But Dr. Payne Smith, with much reason, is more than half inclined to follow the Septuagint reading, equivalent to "as one in a deep sleep." Leave us not; literally, lay us not down; as if a burden of which the bearer is tired.

CALVIN, "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 (111) 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,

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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.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.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:9 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.Ver. 9. Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished?] That knows not which way to take: first he goes one way, and by and by he returns again. Tremellius rendereth it ut vir fatiscens, as one that fainteth, hath done his utmost, and can do no more.Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us; leave us not.] Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam. This was to "stir up himself to take hold of God."ELLICOTT, " (9) As a man astonied.—The word so rendered is not found elsewhere, but cognate words in Arabic have the meaning of being startled and perplexed.Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us.—After all, then, so the prophet’s reviving faith tells him, Jehovah is more than the passing guest. He abides still among His people. He is as a mighty man, strong to save, though as yet He refrains from action.We are called by thy name.—Literally, as in the margin, Thy name is called upon us, i.e. (as in Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 63:19; Isaiah 65:1), “we are still recognised as Thine, the people of Jehovah.”PETT, "Jeremiah 14:9

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‘Why should you be as a frightened (or bewildered) man,As a mighty man who cannot save?Yet you, O YHWH, are in the midst of us,And we are called by your name. Do not desert us.’They then called on Him to reveal His true worth in positive action, and to demonstrate that He was not inadequate. Let Him stand up and be counted. Let Him act and prove Himself. Surely He was not like a coward who held back from acting, or like a mighty man who was in no position to save because of his own insufficiency? Surely He was not that inadequate?Then they pointed out that it was He Who dwelt among them and that they were called by His Name. Were they not said to be YHWH’s people? Surely then it was His responsibility to save them, and prove Himself at the same time. And it was on that basis they called on Him not to desert them. But as will be noted, while there was a lot of attempt at persuasion, and at putting YHWH under an obligation, they said nothing about their obligations, or their returning to the covenant and beginning to walk in obedience to Him. Their prayers were mainly flannel as a last desperate hope. They were playing Him like a musician plays his stringed instrument.

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.”

BARNES, "The answer is addressed to the people. Jeremiah had prayed as their 64

representative, but he must not intercede: for to the same degree that God was determined to punish them, to the same degree (thus) they love to continue their offence.” Compare Jer_15:6 note.Therefore the Lord ... - Translate:“And Yahweh hath no pleasure in them:Now will He remember their iniquity and visit their sins.”Interference in their behalf is out of the question.

CLARKE, "Thus have they loved to wander - And the measure of your iniquity being now full, ye must be punished.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord unto this people,.... Instead of answering the prophet directly and immediately, he first speaks to the people, and observes their sin is the cause of his conduct; and whom he does not vouchsafe to call his people; they having broken covenant with him, and so notoriously backslidden from him; but this people, this wicked and worthless people: thus have they loved to wander; from the Lord, and out of the way of their duty, to Egypt and Assyria for help, and after strange gods, and the worship of them; and this they chose and delighted in; it arose from corrupt affections and a depraved heart: they have not refrained their feet; from going into other lands, or into the temples of idols; wherefore, it ought not to be wondered at that the Lord was as a stranger in their land, and as a wayfaring man that tarried for a night; and hence it was that they should have enough of wandering to and fro, since they loved it; in seeking for water in their own land, and by their being carried captive into others; so the Targum, "as they loved, so will I take vengeance on them, to cause them to be carried captive from the land of the house of my majesty; and as they have delighted themselves in the worship of idols, and from the house of my sanctuary have not refrained their feet, therefore before the Lord there is no delight in them:'' therefore the Lord doth not accept them; has no favour for them, no pleasure in them; does not accept either their persons or their services: he will now remember their iniquity; their idolatry; their trust in others, and distrust of him; which might seem to be forgotten because he had taken no notice of them, in a providential way, to correct for them; but now he would let them know that they were had in remembrance, by causing his judgments to come upon them for them: this stands opposed to the forgiveness of sin; when God forgives sin he remembers it no more; but when he does not, but punishes for it, then he is said to remember it: and visit their; sins; or them for their sins; that is, punish them.

HENRY 10-12, "The dispute between God and his prophet, in this chapter, seems to be like that between the owner and the dresser of the vineyard concerning the barren fig-

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tree, Luk_13:7. The justice of the owner condemns it to be cut down; the clemency of the dresser intercedes for a reprieve. Jeremiah had been earnest with God, in prayer, to return in mercy to this people. Now here,I. God overrules the plea which he had offered in their favour, and shows him that it would not hold. In answer to it thus he says concerning this people, Jer_14:10. He does not say, concerning my people, for he disowns them, because they had broken covenant with him. It is true they were called by his name, and had the tokens of his presence among them; but they had sinned, and provoked God to withdraw. This the prophet had owned, and had hoped to obtain mercy for them, notwithstanding this, through intercession and sacrifice; therefore God here tells him, 1. That they were not duly qualified for a pardon. The prophet had owned that their backslidings were many; and, though they were so, yet there was hope for them if they returned. But this people show no disposition at all to return; they have wandered, and they have loved to wander;their backslidings have been their choice and their pleasure, which should have been their shame and pain, and therefore they will be their ruin. They cannot expect God should take up his rest with them when they take such delight in going astray from him after their idols. It is not through necessity or inadvertency that they wander, but they love to wander. Sinners are wanderers from God; their wanderings forfeit God's favour, but it is their loving to wander that quite cuts them off from it. They were told what their wanderings would come to that one sin would hurry them on to another, and all to ruin; and yet they have not taken warning and refrained their feet. So far were they from returning to their God that neither his prophets nor his judgments could prevail upon them to give themselves the least check in a sinful pursuit. This is that for which God is now reckoning with them. When he denies them rain from heaven he is remembering their iniquity and visiting their sin; that is it for which their fruitful land is thus turned into barrenness. 2. That they had no reason to expect that the God they had rejected should accept them; no, not though they betook themselves to fasting and prayer and put themselves to the expense of burnt-offerings and sacrifice: The Lord doth not accept them, Jer_14:10. He takes no pleasure in them (so the word is); for what pleasure can the holy God take in those that take pleasure in his rivals, in any service, in any society, rather than his? “When they fast (Jer_14:12), which is a proper expression of repentance and reformation, - when they offer a burnt offering and an oblation, which was designed to be an expression of faith in a Mediator, - though their prayers be thus enforced, and offered up in those vehicles that used to be acceptable, yet, because they do not proceed from humble, penitent, and renewed hearts, but still they love to wander, therefore I will not hear their cry, be it ever so loud; nor will I accept them,neither their persons nor their performances.” It had been long since declared, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; and those only are accepted that do well, Gen_4:7. 3. That they had forfeited all benefit by the prophet's prayers for them because they had not regarded his preaching to them. This is the meaning of that repeated prohibition given to the prophet (Jer_14:11): Pray not thou for this people for their good, as before, Jer_7:15; Jer_11:14. This did not forbid him thus to express his good-will to them (Moses continued to intercede for Israel after God had said, Let me alone, Exo_32:10), but it forbade them to expect any good effect from it as long as they turned away their ear from hearing the law. Thus was the doom of the impenitent ratified, as that of Saul's rejection was by that word to Samuel, When wilt thou cease to mourn for Saul? It therefore follows (Jer_14:12), I will consume them, not only by this famine, but by the further sore judgments of sword and pestilence; for God has many arrows in his quiver, and those that will not be convinced and reclaimed by one shall be

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consumed by another.JAMISON, "Jehovah’s reply to the prayer (Jer_14:7-9; Jer_2:23-25).Thus — So greatly.loved — (Jer_5:31).not refrained ... feet — They did not obey God’s command; “withhold thy foot” (Jer_2:25), namely, from following after idols.remember ... iniquity — (Hos_8:13; Hos_9:9). Their sin is so great, God must punish them.

K&D 10-18, "The Lord's answer. - Jer_14:10. "Thus saith Jahveh unto this people: Thus they loved to wander, their feet they kept not back; and Jahveh hath no pleasure in them, now will He remember their iniquities and visit their sins. Jer_14:11. And Jahveh hath said unto me: Pray not for this people for their good. Jer_14:12. When they fast, I hear not their cry; and when they bring burnt-offering and meat-offering, I have no pleasure in them; but by sword, and famine, and pestilence will I consume them. Jer_14:13. Then said I: Ah Lord Jahveh, behold, the prophets say to them, Ye shall see no sword, and famine shall not befall you, but assured peace give I in this place. Jer_14:14. And Jahveh said unto me: Lies do the prophets prophesy in my name:I have not sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and deceit of their heart they prophesy to you. Jer_14:15. Therefore thus saith Jahveh concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, when I have not sent them, who yet say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall these prophets perish. Jer_14:16. And the people to whom they prophesy shall lie cast out upon the streets of Jerusalem, by reason of the famine and of the sword, and none will bury them, them and their wives, their sons and their daughters; and I pour their wickedness upon them. Jer_14:17. And thou shalt say to them this word: Let mine eyes run down with tears day and night and let them not cease; for with a great breach is broken the virgin-daughter of my people, with a very grievous blow. Jer_14:18. If I go forth into the field, behold the slain with the sword; and if I come into the city, behold them that pine with famine; for prophet and priest pass into a land and know it not."

To the prophet's prayer the Lord answers in the first place, Jer_14:10, by pointing to the backsliding of the people, for which He is now punishing them. In the "thus they love," etc., lies a backward reference to what precedes. The reference is certainly not to the vain going for water (Jer_14:3), as Chr. B. Mich. and R. Salomo Haccohen thought it was; nor is it to the description of the animals afflicted by thirst, Jer_14:5 and Jer_14:6, in which Näg. finds a description of the passionate, unbridled lust after idolatry, the real and final cause of the ruin that has befallen Israel. Where could be the likeness between the wild ass's panting for breath and the wandering of the Jews? That to which the "thus" refers must be sought for in the body of the prayer to which Jahveh makes answer, as Ros. rightly saw. Not by any means in the fact that in Jer_14:9 the Jews prided themselves on being the people of God and yet went after false gods, so that God answered: ita amant vacillare, as good as to say: ita instabiles illos esse, ut nunc ab ipso, nunc ab aliis auxilium quaerant (Ros.); for ַנּוע cannot here mean the waving and swaying of reeds, but only the wandering after other gods, cf. Jer_2:23, Jer_2:31. This is

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shown by the addition: they kept not back their feet, cf. with Jer_2:25, where in the same reference the withholding of the feet is enjoined. Graf is right in referring huts to the preceding prayer: "Thus, in the same degree as Jahveh has estranged Himself from His people (cf. Jer_14:8 and Jer_14:9), have they estranged themselves from their God." They loved to wander after strange gods, and so have brought on themselves God's displeasure. Therefore punishment comes on them. The second clause of the verse is a reminiscence of Hos_8:13. - After mentioning the reason why He punishes Judah, the Lord in Jer_14:11. rejects the prayer of the prophet, because He will not hear the people's cry to Him. Neither by means of fasts nor sacrifice will they secure God's pleasure. The prophet's prayer implies that the people will humble themselves and turn to the Lord. Hence God explains His rejection of the prayer by saying that He will give no heed to the people's fasting and sacrifices. The reason of this appears from the context - namely, because they turn to Him only in their need, while their heart still cleaves to the idols, so that their prayers are but lip-service, and their sacrifices a soulless formality. The suffix in ֹרָצם refers not to the sacrifices, but, like that in ִרָּנָתם, to the Jews who, by bringing sacrifices, seek to win God's love. ִּכי, but, introducing the antithesis to "have no pleasure in them." The sword in battle, famine, and pestilence, at the siege of the cities, are the three means by which God designs to destroy the backsliding people; cf. Lev_26:25.

In spite of the rejection of his prayer, the prophet endeavours yet again to entreat God's favour for the people, laying stress, Jer_14:13, on the fact that they had been deceived and confirmed in their infatuation by the delusive forecastings of the false prophets who promised peace. Peace of truth, i.e., peace that rests on God's faithfulness, and so: assured peace will I give you. Thus spoke these prophets in the name of Jahveh; cf. on this Jer_4:10; Jer_5:12. Hitz. and Graf propose to change ם ְׁשל ֱאֶמת into ם ָׁשלacc. to Jer_33:6 ,ֶוֱאֶמת and Isa_39:8, because the lxx have ἀλήθειαν καὶ εἰρήνην. But none of the passages cited furnishes sufficient ground for this. In Jer_33:6 the lxx have rendered εἰρήνην καὶ πίστιν, in Isa_39:8, εἰρήνη καὶ δικαιοσύνη; giving thereby a clearproof that we cannot draw from their rendering any certain inferences as to the precise words of the original text. Nor do the parallels prove anything, since in them the expression often varies in detail. But there can be no doubt that in the mouth of the pseudo-prophets "assured peace" is more natural than "peace and truth." But the Lord does not allow this excuse. He has not sent the prophets that so prophesy: they prophesy lying vision, divination, falsehood, and deceit, and shall themselves be destroyed by sword and famine. The cumulation of the words, "lying vision," etc., shows God's wrath and indignation at the wicked practices of these men. Graf wants to delete ְו before ֱאִליל, and to couple אליל with ֶקֶסם, so as to make one idea: prophecy of nought. For this he can allege none other than the erroneous reason that ֶקֶסם, taken by itself, does not sufficiently correspond to "lying vision," inasmuch as, he says, it has not always a bad sense attached to it; whereas the fact is that it is nowhere used for genuine prophecy. The Chet. ֱאלּול and ַּתְרמּות are unusual formations, for which the usual forms are substituted in the Keri. Deceit of their heart is not self-deceit, but deceit which their heart has devised; cf. Jer_23:26. But the people to whom these prophets prophesied are to perish by sword and famine, and to lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem; cf. Jer_8:2; Jer_16:4. They are not therefore held excused because false prophets told them lies, for they have given credit to these lies, lies that flattered their sinful passions, and have not been willing to hear or take to heart the word of the true prophets, who preached

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repentance and return to God.(Note: The Berleburg Bible says: "They wish to have such teachers, and even to bring it about that there shall be so many deceiving workers, because they can hardly even endure or listen to the upright ones. That is the reason why it is to go no better with them than we see it is." Calvin too has suggested the doubt: posset tamen videri parum humaniter agere Deus, quod tam duras paenas infligit miseris hominibus, qui aliunde decepti sunt, and has then given the true solution: certum est, nisi ultro mundus appeteret mendacia, non tantam fore efficaciam diaboli ad fallendum. Quod igitur ita rapiuntur homines ad imposturas, hoc fit eorum culpa, quoniam magis propensi sunt ad vanitatem, quam ut se Deo et verbo ejus subjiciant.)

To Hitz. it seems surprising that, in describing the punishment which is to fall on seducers and seduced, there should not be severer judgment, in words at least, levelled against the seducers as being those involved in the deeper guilt; whereas the very contrary is the case in the Hebrew text. Hitz. further proposes to get rid of this discrepancy by conjectures founded on the lxx, yet without clearly informing us how we are to read. But the difficulty solves itself as soon as we pay attention to the connection. The portion of the discourse before us deals with the judgment which is to burst on the godless people, in the course of which those who had seduced the people are only casually mentioned. For the purpose in hand, it was sufficient to say briefly of the seducers that they too should perish by sword and famine who affirmed that these punishments should not befall the people, whereas it was necessary to set before the people the terrors of this judgment in all their horror, in order not to fail of effect. With the reckoning of the various classes of persons: they, their wives, etc., cf. the account of their participation in idolatry, Jer_7:18. Hitz. rightly paraphrases ְוָׁשַפְכִּתי: and in this wise will I pour out. ָרָעָתם, not: the calamity destined for them, but: their wickedness which falls on them with its consequences, cf. Jer_2:19, Hos_9:15, for propheta videtur causam reddere, cur Deus horribile illud judicium exequi statuerit contra Judaeos, nempe quoniam digni erant tali mercede (Calv.).PULPIT, "Jer_14:10Thus have they loved to wander, … therefore the Lord doth not accept them;i.e. with such pertinacity have they been set upon "wandering" (roving lawlessly about), that the Lord hath no more pleasure in them. "Therefore," is, literally, and. "Thus," or "so," is used in the same sense as in 1Ki_10:12, which runs literally, " … there came not so [abundantly] among timber." The particle of comparison has given much occupation to the commentators (see Payne Smith’s note), but the above view is at once simple and suitable to the context; for Jeremiah has already admitted that "our backslidings are multiplied" (verse 7). The Lord doth not, etc. (to the end of the verse), is quoted verbatim from Hos_8:13. Jeremiah puts conspicuous honor on the older inspired writers; he has no craving for originality. Nearly all has been said already; what he has to do is chiefly to adapt and to apply, He will now remember, etc. The emphasis is on "now" Nothing is more remarkable in the prophets than the stress laid on the unerring justness of the time chosen for Divine interpositions. When the iniquity is fully ripe, it as it were attracts the punishment, which till then is laid up in store (comp. Gen_15:16; Isa_18:5; Isa_33:10).

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CALVIN, "The Prophet goes on with the same subject; but he reproves the Jews more severely and shews what their sins were. He says then that they were given to inconstancy; but by saying, “to wander,” לנוע lenuo, which means to move here and there, he no doubt mentions this inconstancy as a contrast to that quiemess and rest, of which Isaiah speaks, when he says,“Behold the Lord hath commanded, In returning and in confidence shall be your strength, in quietness and tranquillity.”(Isaiah 30:15)He then wished the Jews to adopt different counsels, and not to run here and there when any danger was at hand, but to wait until he, according to his promise, came to their aid. Hence Jeremiah now accuses them of inconstancy, because they would not rely on God’s help and remain firm in their purpose, but run here and there for vain helps; besides a diabolical frenzy led them after idols, as Isaiah says in another place,“Thou hast wearied thyself in thy ways and without profit,”(Isaiah 47:13)This fact is often mentioned by the prophets, — that they were like roving strumpets who seek paramours everywhere; for their confederacies with the Egyptians and the Chaldeans cost them much, and yet they spared no expenses. They might have waited quietly for the aid of God, which had been promised; but they did not.We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet when he says, that they loved to wander, (112) or to move here and there, and that they restrained not their feet At the first view, indeed, this seems to have been but a small offense; but if we consider its source, that they distrusted God and his power, and placed their safety in the Egyptians, or the Chaldeans, it will appear to have been a shameful and an intolerable sacrilege. Unbelief, then, is here condemned; for the Jews looked around for foreign aids, and made no account of God.Now this passage, is worthy of being especially noticed, for unbelief is here painted to the life. It is indeed true that even the children of God are not so tranquil in their minds that they never fear, that they are never solicitous or anxious, that they dread no danger; but yet, though the faithful are disturbed by many inquietudes, cares, anxieties, and fears, still God ever preserves them; and the firmness of their faith within continues, though it may happen that they are apparently not only shaken, but even stagger and fall. But God gives to the unbelieving their just reward, who derogate from his power, while they place their safety on men or on idols, for they never find where they may safely stand. They therefore weary themselves without any advantage. On this account he says, Therefore Jehovah will not be pleased with them, that is, God will not give them courage: nay, he says, he will now remember their iniquities and visit their sins In short, he teaches us, that so grievous was the wickedness of that people, that there was no place for the mercy of God. He

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afterwards adds —Thus saith Jehovah of this people, — “So have they loved to wander, Their feet have they not restrained.” And Jehovah has not been pleased with them; He will now remember their iniquity, And he will visit their sin.— Ed.COFFMAN, "Verse 10GOD REFUSES TO HEAR THEM"Thus saith Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah doth not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence."Clarke summarized God's reply to the prayer as follows: "The measure of Israel's iniquity being now full, they must be punished. The nation is ripe for destruction; intercede not for them."[13]"They have loved to wander ..." (Jeremiah 14:10) There is nothing innocent about this "wandering." Cheyne rendered it, "roving lawlessly about."[14]"Pray not for this people ..." (Jeremiah 14:11). Twice previously, God gave Jeremiah this same instruction (Jeremiah 7:15; 11:14); but Jeremiah had been unable to stop praying. No mother ever quit praying for a wayward son, no matter how hopeless his wickedness became. It could be that God was not really forbidding Jeremiah to pray but that he was merely pointing out the uselessness of any further prayers on behalf of apostate Israel."Jehovah doth not accept them ..." (Jeremiah 14:10). Keil's comment on the reason why God would not then hear Israel is thus:The reason was that they turned to God only in their need, but while their hearts still clung to their idols. Their prayers were only lip-service, and their sacrifices a soulless formality.[15]While it is certainly true that Keil's excellent comment here applied to the vast majority of the condemned people, we must also agree with Payne Smith who wrote: "It is not necessary to say with Keil that Israel's fasts and sacrifices were `heartless formalities.' There would have been those whom the chastisement had brought to repentance (also, those of the "righteous remnant" J.B.C.); and for these

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the lesson was a sterner one. There is a time when the most genuine repentance avails nothing to avert the temporal consequences of sin."[16]"Sword... famine ... pestilence ..." (Jeremiah 14:12) This dreadful trio throughout the ages has been the perpetual destroyers of human life. They are frequently mentioned in scripture, as here and in Jeremiah 5:12; 14:15; 27:8; 29:18; 2 Samuel 24:13; Isaiah 51:19, etc.COKE, "Jeremiah 14:10. Thus saith the Lord unto, &c.— Thus saith the Lord concerning this people. They altogether love to wander, &c. Houbigant. God here returns an answer to the complaints and expostulations of the prophet, and tells him, that the miseries of the people are owing to themselves; ever turbulent and unquiet as they were, fond of novelty, forsaking God for the worship of idols, and despising the divine succour, to run after that of strangers.PETT, "Verse 10YHWH’s Reply To His People (Jeremiah 14:10).Jeremiah 14:10‘Thus says YHWH to this people,“Even so have they loved to wander,They have not prevented their feet from straying,Therefore YHWH does not accept them,Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.”But this time YHWH’s reply was one of rejection. It was no good their deserting Him, and then calling on Him not to desert them. They had done it too often before. But what they had proved was that they loved to wander away from Him. They had made no real attempt to prevent their feet from straying. Now therefore it was too late. While in the past He had often responded to such entreaties, now He was not willing to accept them back. Rather He would remember their iniquity and visit on them their sins. They had reached the end of the road.PULPIT, "Jeremiah 14:10Thus have they loved to wander, … therefore the Lord doth not accept them; i.e. with such pertinacity have they been set upon "wandering" (roving lawlessly about), that the Lord hath no more pleasure in them. "Therefore," is, literally, and. "Thus," or "so," is used in the same sense as in 1 Kings 10:12, which runs literally, " … there came not so [abundantly] among timber." The particle of comparison has

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given much occupation to the commentators (see Payne Smith's note), but the above view is at once simple and suitable to the context; for Jeremiah has already admitted that "our backslidings are multiplied" (verse 7). The Lord doth not, etc. (to the end of the verse), is quoted verbatim from Hosea 8:13. Jeremiah puts conspicuous honor on the older inspired writers; he has no craving for originality. Nearly all has been said already; what he has to do is chiefly to adapt and to apply, He will now remember, etc. The emphasis is on "now" Nothing is more remarkable in the prophets than the stress laid on the unerring justness of the time chosen for Divine interpositions. When the iniquity is fully ripe, it as it were attracts the punishment, which till then is laid up in store (comp. Genesis 15:16; Isaiah 18:5; Isaiah 33:10).BI 10-16, "Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet; therefore the Lord doth net accept them.Jehovah’s refusal to allow intercession to prevailI. The Lord’s answer to the prophet’s prayer.

1. He points to the backsliding of the people, for which He now punishes them.2. He refuses the prophet’s prayer because He loathes the people’s soulless fastings and sacrifices.3. He specifies the means by which He will destroy this backsliding people. Battle. Famine. Pestilence.

II. The prophet renews his endeavours to entreat God’s favour.1. He lays stress on the fact that they had been deceived.2. But they are not excused on that account; for they gave credit to lies.

(1) God had not commissioned these prophets.(2) Their easy and willing dupes are condemned to ignoring.

3. Seducers should perish with those they seduced. (C. Keil.)

11 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.

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CLARKE, "Pray not for this people - They are ripe for destruction, intercede not for them. O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people!

GILL, "Then said the Lord unto me,.... To the prophet; now the Lord gives a more direct answer to him, and to his prayers and intercession for the people; which he forbids, saying, pray not for this people for their good; or "for good things", as the Septuagint; for rain, that the famine might cease; and for deliverance from their enemies, that they might not go into captivity; for these things were determined upon by the Lord: he does not forbid him praying at all for them, or for their repentance and reformation; or for spiritual good things for them, for eternal life and salvation for the remnant of his own people among them; but not for external good things for the bulk of them.CALVIN, "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

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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.”PETT, "Verses 11-18YHWH Informs Jeremiah That He Will No Longer Hear His People But Rather Intends To Continue To Visit Them with the Sword And With Famine (Jeremiah 14:11-18).Once again we learn with something of a shock that God no longer wished Jeremiah to pray for His people (compare Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14). The time when He would respond to prayer for them was past. Now only judgment awaited, judgment by sword, famine and pestilence. They had rebelled against Him once too often. It is a reminder to us that there does come a time when God has been so rejected that the time for mercy ceases, and only judgment awaits. We cannot go on putting Him off for ever.A different story, however, was being taught by the false prophets. They were promising that YHWH would bring peace to Jerusalem. But YHWH assured Jeremiah that they had not been sent by Him and that what they were prophesying was lies. Indeed they too would experience the sword and the famine, along with the people. (This may well have been prophesied prior to the great famine described above). Meanwhile Jeremiah himself was to confirm that not only Jerusalem, but also the whole land, was soon to experience sword and famine.Jeremiah 14:11-12‘And YHWH said to me,Do not pray for this people for good,When they fast, I will not hear their cry,And when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering,I will not accept them,But I will consume them by the sword,And by the famine, and by the pestilence.YHWH informs Jeremiah that he was not to pray for good to come to His people,

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for He would no longer hear such prayers. When they fasted He would not hear their cry, when they offered their burnt offerings and cereal offerings He would not accept them, for their hearts were not right and they were not coming to Him in restored obedience to His covenant. Intercession for them would thus no longer be successful, for His intention was to consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. These were three of the curses which were threatened for breach of the covenant. See Leviticus 26:19-20; Leviticus 26:25; Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:21-24; Deuteronomy 28:49-52. The three regularly went together, as well as occurring independently. War would bring famine, and famine would bring pestilence, or they could occur independently.

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.”

GILL, "When they fast, I will not hear their cry,.... Or, "though they fast" (k); very probably on account of the want of rain, and the dearth or famine, a fast was proclaimed; see Jer_36:9, when they prayed and cried aloud, and made a great noise; but their prayers being hypocritical, and not arising from a pure heart, or offered up in faith and love, were not heard and accepted by the Lord: and when they offer burnt offerings and an oblation; or a meat or bread offering, which went along with the burnt offering; thinking by those outward things to atone for their sins, without true repentance for them, or faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ: I will not accept them; neither their offerings, nor their persons: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; the Lord not only determines the continuance of the famine, notwithstanding the prayers of the prophet; but adds two other judgments, the sword and pestilence, by which he was resolved to consume them; and therefore it was to no purpose to pray to him on their behalf, he was inexorable.

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JAMISON, "not hear — because their prayers are hypocritical: their hearts are still idolatrous. God never refuses to hear real prayer (Jer_7:21, Jer_7:22; Pro_1:28; Isa_1:15; Isa_58:3).

sword ... famine ... pestilence — the three sorest judgments at once; any one of which would be enough for their ruin (2Sa_24:12, 2Sa_24:13).PULPIT, "Jer_14:12Their cry. The word is very forcible; it is the shriek in which an unsophisticated man gives vent to his pain and grief. An oblation. It is the vegetable offering (Authorized Version, "meat offering;" Luther, "speisopfer") which is referred to in the so-called minkhah (literally, gift). Though sometimes offered separately, it regularly accompanied a burnt offering. I will not accept them. Dr. Payne Smith tries to soften the rejection of these worshippers by the remark that "there is a time when the most genuine repentance avails nothing to avert the temporal consequences of sin." But the analogy of other similar passages (e.g. Isa_1:15) warrants the view of Keil that the ground of the rejection of the worship is its heartless formalism and insincerity, which was equally a bar to Jehovah’s favor and the prophet’s intercession.

CALVIN, "He afterwards adds, Even when they fast, I will not hear their cry, and when they present a sacrifice and an oblation, I will not be pleased with them He doubtless touches the hypocrites, who, though void of all sincerity, yet professed to be the true worshippers of God, and by sacrifices and fastings and other external rites wished to prove themselves to be so. He therefore says that he would not be propitious or appeasable, though they fasted, and prayed, and offered all kinds of sacrifices. The words, as I have said, were especially addressed to hypocrites; for we know that that declaration remains unchangeablesthat God is nigh to all those who call on him in sincerity. (Psalms 145:18) Whosoever, then, calls on God with a true heart, infallibly obtains his favor; for in another place it is ascribed to God as a thing necessarily belonging to him, that he hears prayers. Whenever then God is invoked, he cannot divest himself of what essentially appertains to himshis readiness to hear prayer. But here he intimates that there was no sincerity in the people; for even when they fasted and prayed, and offered sacrifices, they did not truly worship him; for, as it was said before, they could no more put off the wickedness which adhered to their marrow than the Ethiopian could change his skin or the panther his spots, (Jeremiah 13:23) He then shews, in this place, that though they wearied themselves, in pacifying God by an external profession, they did nothing but act falsely, and that therefore their efforts would be all in vain; for they profaned the name of God when they thus grossly dissembled with him. This is the meaning.Fasting is expressly mentioned, and it hence appears, that when there is nothing wanting as to outward appearance, God still ever regards faith, as we have seen in the fifth chapter. Hence God values not what is highly esteemed by men, and excites their feelings: why? because he regards the faith of the heart, and faith is taken for integrity. So then God abominates a double and a false heart; and the greater the fervor hypocrites display in external rites, the more they provoke him.

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We pray to God daily, it may be said, and yet we do not fast daily. It is indeed true that prayer is more intent when we fast; but yet God requires not daily fastings, while he enjoins prayer both in the morning and in the evening, yea, he would have us to implore his grace continually. (1 Thessalonians 5:17) But when fasting is joined to prayer, then prayer becomes more earnest; as it is usually the case when there is any danger, or when there appears any evidence of God’s wrath, or when we labor under any heavy affliction; for we then not only pray but we also fast that we may be more free and more at liberty to pray. Besides, fasting is also an evidence that we are deprecating the wrath of God, while we confess that we are guilty before him; and thus also they who pray stimulate themselves the more to sorrow and to other penitential feelings. It is therefore the same as though he had said, “Even if they pray in no common manner and every day, and add fasting, so that greater fervor may appear in their prayers and extraordinary attention, yet I will not hear their cries, even because their heart is false.”We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intended — that there may be a greater alacrity in Prayer — that it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins — and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts — except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of God’s worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for his worship is polluted.But under the Papacy the reason given for fastings is, that they merit the favor of God. The Papists seek to pacify him by fasting as by a sort of satisfaction; they will have fasting to be a work of merit. I will not now speak of the numberless trifles which also pollute their fasting; but let us suppose that they are not superstitious in their choice of meats, in their hours, and in other childish follies, which are mere trumperies, nay, mockeries also to God — let us suppose them to be free from all these vices, yet the intention, as they call it, is nothing else but a diabolical error, for they determine that fasting is a work of merit and of satisfaction, and a kind of expiation. Let us then know, that though Jeremiah speaks of hypocrites, yet he briefly points out the design of fasting by mentioning prayer. So also Christ, when recommending fasting, makes mention of prayer. (Matthew 17:21; Mark 9:29) The same is done by Paul. (1 Corinthians 7:5.) But it ought to be noticed here, that though hypocrites joined before men prayer with fasting, they were yet rejected, for there was no sincerity in their hearts, but only an outward profession, a mere disguise. But God, as we have, seen, regards the heart, and sincerity alone pleases him.The same thing is said of sacrificing, When they present sacrifices, or burnt — offerings, and an oblation, מנחה , meneche, that is, the daily offerings, I will not hear them, or, as he says in the second clause, I will not be pleased with them Sacrifice

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without prayers were no doubt vain and worthless, for as pr ayers were not acceptable to God without a sacrifice, so when sacrifice was without prayers it was only a vain shew these two things are then united as by an indissoluble knot, to offer sacrifices and to pray.Prayers, as I have said, cannot be acceptable to God without a sacrifice; for what can proceed from mortal man but what is abominable before God? Our prayers must therefore be sanctified in order that they please God; and the only way of sanctification is through the sacrifice of Christ. When they offered sacrifices under the law they also joined prayers; and by this ceremony they who made any request professed themselves unworthy except a sacrifice was offered. The Prophet then mentions here what God had commanded under the law, but he shews that hypocrites separated the principal thing from the external signs. God indeed neither disregards nor rejects signs, but when what they signify is separated from them, there is then an intolerable profanation. Let us then know, that though nothing may be wanting in the external worship, yet whatever we seek to do is abominable to God except it be accompanied with sincerity of heart.But I will consume them, (113) he says, with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence I render the particle כי ki, “but.” He refers here to three modes of destruction, that the Jews might surely know that they were to perish, according to what is said elsewhere, “He who escapes from the sword shall perish by the famine, and he who survives the famine shall perish by the pestilence.” God shews, in short, that he was armed with various kinds of punishment, so that they who had so provoked him as wholly to lose the hope of pardon, could by no escapes deliver themselves from destruction. God might indeed have consumed the Jews by one punishment, he might have also threatened them in general terms without specifying anything, but as the unbelieving ever promise themselves some way of escape, so his purpose was to hold them bound in every way, that they might know that they were shut up on every side, and that no way of escape could be found. This is the meaning. It follows —But with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence,Will I cause them to be condemned.— Ed.ELLICOTT, " (12) An oblation.—The minchah or meat-offering of Leviticus 2:1. We need not assume that the fast and the sacrifice were necessarily hypocritical, though doubtless much of this mingled itself with the worship of Israel now as it had done in the days of Isaiah, and met with a like rejection (Isaiah 1:15). The lesson here is rather that they came too late to stay the discipline of chastisement.By the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence,—The history of the world shows how constantly the latter plagues have followed in the wake of the former, and the union of the three has become proverbial (Leviticus 26:25-26; Ezekiel 5:12). In Ezekiel 14:21 the “noisome beast” is added to make up the list of the four sore judgments of God.

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PULPIT, "Their cry. The word is very forcible; it is the shriek in which an unsophisticated man gives vent to his pain and grief. An oblation. It is the vegetable offering (Authorized Version, "meat offering;" Luther, "speisopfer") which is referred to in the so-called minkhah (literally, gift). Though sometimes offered separately, it regularly accompanied a burnt offering. I will not accept them. Dr. Payne Smith tries to soften the rejection of these worshippers by the remark that "there is a time when the most genuine repentance avails nothing to avert the temporal consequences of sin." But the analogy of other similar passages (e.g. Isaiah 1:15) warrants the view of Keil that the ground of the rejection of the worship is its heartless formalism and insincerity, which was equally a bar to Jehovah's favor and the prophet's intercession.

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.’”

BARNES, "The false prophets in Jeremiah’s days were so numerous and influential an to counteract and almost nullify the influence of the true prophet. We find in Isaiah the first indications of the internal decay of the prophetic order; and Micah, his contemporary, denounces the false prophets in the strongest terms Mic_3:5, Mic_3:11. For the secret of their power see Jer_5:31.

CLARKE, "Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them - True, Lord, they are exceedingly wicked; but the false prophets have deceived them; this is some mitigation of their offense. This plea God does not admit; and why? the people believed them, without having any proof of their Divine mission.GILL, "Then said I, Ah, Lord God!.... Being grieved at heart for the people, because he was forbid to pray for them, and because the Lord had resolved on the ruin of them; and the rather he pitied them, because they were deceived by the false prophets, and

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therefore he tries to excuse them, and lay the blame upon them, as follows: behold, the prophets say unto them; that is, the false prophets, as the Targum; Jeremiah does not call them so, being willing to make the best of it: ye shall not see the sword; the sword of the enemy drawn in your country, or fall by it: neither shall ye have famine; by which it appears, that it was not yet come, only foretold; the contrary to which is here affirmed: but I will give you assured peace in this place; so they spoke as from the Lord, and in his name, with all the confidence imaginable; assuring the people that they should have peace and prosperity, and be in the utmost safety in Jerusalem; and that neither famine nor sword would come to them, nor in the least hurt them. In the Hebrew text it is, "peace of truth" (l); that is, true peace, firm and lasting. The Septuagint render it "peace and truth"; see Isa_39:8.

HENRY, "The prophet offers another plea in excuse for the people's obstinacy, and it is but an excuse, but he was willing to say whatever their case would bear; it is this, That the prophets, who pretended a commission from heaven, imposed upon them, and flattered them with assurances of peace though they went on in their sinful way, Jer_14:13. He speaks of it with lamentation: “Ah! Lord God, the poor people seem willing to take notice of what comes in thy name, and there are those who in thy name tell them that they shall not see the sword nor famine; and they say it as from thee, with all the gravity and confidence of prophets: I will continue you in this place, and will give you assured peace here, peace of truth. I tell them the contrary; but I am one against many, and every one is apt to credit that which makes for them; therefore, Lord, pity and spare them, for their leaders cause them to err.” This excuse would have been of some weight if they had not had warning given them, before, of false prophets, and rules by which to distinguish them; so that if they were deceived it was entirely their own fault. But this teaches us, as far as we can with truth, to make the best of bad, and judge as charitably of others as their case will bear.

JAMISON, "Jeremiah urges that much of the guilt of the people is due to the false prophets’ influence.

assured peace — solid and lasting peace. Literally, “peace of truth” (Isa_39:8).PULPIT, ""Pleading with Providence, the good prophet lays the blame on ill teaching, but the stern answer (Jer_14:14), admitting the plea as true, rejects it as inadequate (Jer_14:14), and denounces sorrows which (Jer_14:17-22) the prophet passionately deprecates" (Rowland Williams). Ah, Lord God! rather, Alas! O Lord Jehovah (see on Jer_1:6). The prophets say unto them. The greater part of the prophetic order had not kept pace with its more spiritual members (Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.). They still traded on those natural gifts of divination (Mic_3:6) which were, no doubt, where genuine, of Divine origin, but which, even then, needed to be supple-merited and controlled by a special impulse from the Spirit of holiness. Jeremiah, however, declares, on the

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authority of a revelation, that these prophets did not divine by any God-given faculty, but "the deceit of their own heart" (Verse 14). The Deuteronomic Torah, discovered after a period of concealment at the outset of Jeremiah’s ministry, energetically forbids the practice of the art of divination (Deu_18:10).

CALVIN, "The Prophet no doubt relates what he had expressed in prayer to God; but yet he has a reference to the people. He then prayed in the manner he now relates; but he renders public the prayers he offered by himself and without a witness, in order that he might restore the Jews from their impiety. Now Jeremiah’s colloquy with God availed not a little to touch the Jews; for as though they themselves had been present, he set before them what he had heard from God’s mouth. We now then understand why he made known his secret prayers; it was not for the sake of boasting, but for the sake of doing good to the Jews. It was then his object to consult their benefit, when he declared to them what he had previously poured forth without any witness into the bosom of his God.And I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! He uses an expression of grief, Ah! and thus he shews what concern he felt for his people, being not less anxious on account of their ruin than on account of his own. It may yet be an expression of astonishment, as though the Prophet was fined with surprise, “What can this be, O Lord?” And doubtless an expression of astonishment is not unsuitable, so that the Jews might feel horrified together with him, when they saw that they had been led astray by the false prophecies, by which they had been deceived. He then says, “How is this, O Lord? for the prophets say to them, etc. (114)Here the word, prophets, is emphatic, as though he had said, They are not thus mad wilfully in promising to themselves peace, contrary to thy will, but these prophets who profess and boast of thy name, these are the authors of this so gross a security; for they say, Ye shall not see the sword, famine shall not happen to you; nay, I will give you, etc. Here they assume the person of God; for it is not said, “God shall give you sure peace,” but “I will give you,” etc. We hence see that the Prophet here expresses his horror, while he compares false prophecies with the oracle which he had received from the mouth of God. The prophets, he declares, say, etc. They assumed an honorable title, and one connected with the power and authority of God himself. “Even the prophets then, who seem endued with the authority of heaven, and seem to have been sent by thee, as though they were angels, — even these promise men peace, not in a common manner, but in a way the most imposing, as though they had thine authority, and brought from thy mouth their fallacies, I will give you.”We now then understand the design of the Prophet; for it was necessary to shake off from the Jews that false confidence, by which the false prophets, who pretended to have been sent from above, and boasted that they were God’s servants, the agents of the Holy Spirit, had inebriated them. As then it was necessary to take away from the Jews this confidence, the cause of their ruin, because they hardened themselves in

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contempt of God, and despised all his threatenings; he therefore says, “What! the false prophets speak thus, I will give you sure peace (115) in this place.”We hence learn that Jeremiah had almost a continual contest; for the fiercest antagonists immediately presented themselves, whenever he threatened the people either with exile or with famine, or with any other judgment of God. “What! be secure, for God has chosen this place where he is worshipped. It cannot be that he will banish his Church from its quiet rest. There is no reason then to fear that he will ever suffer this kingdom to perish or his Temple to be destroyed.” Hence the complaint of the Prophet, not that he himself was affected by such falsehoods, but he regarded the good of the people, and sought to recover those who were as yet healable from these deceptions. Hence it follows —TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:13 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.Ver. 13. Ah, Lord God!] The Vulgate Latin hath it, Ah, ah, ah. Vide diligentissimam intercessionem. He seeketh somewhat to excuse the people by laying the blame upon their false prophets. Like whereunto were those Popish priests in Gerson’s time, who preached publicly to the people, that whosoever would come to hear a mass, he should not be struck blind on that day, neither should he die a sudden death, nor want sufficient sustenance, &c.But I will give you assured peace.] Heb., Peace of truth. Thus these deluders had learned to speak the language of God’s true prophets. Of the high soaring, pretended spiritual language of Familists and some other sectarians one saith well, That it is a great deal too high for this world, and a great deal too low for the world to come.COFFMAN, "Verse 13THE FALSE PROPHETS ARE TO BLAME"Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah, 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. Then Jehovah said unto me; the prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their own heart. Therefore thus saith Jehovah 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.""The prophets say unto them ..." (Jeremiah 14:13). This is a reference to the false prophets; and this is an account of how Jeremiah, "tried to excuse the people by blaming the false prophets. That excuse was not acceptable to Jehovah, because

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blame must be attached to those who reject the covenant for whatever cause."[17]Why were the people deceived by the false prophets? The only plausible answer is that they WANTED to be deceived. "The secret of the power of the false prophets was given by the Lord in Jeremiah 5:32, `My people love to have it so.'"[18] Adam Clarke pointed out the fact that the people accepted the allegation of false prophets without any proof, and without investigating their credentials.[19] The slightest attention to the question of "Who are these sons of the devil"? would have spared the people of any temptation to trust them. This is exactly what Christians today should do with regard to men who deny the Bible. Clarke also recounted the fulfillment of this prophecy that the false prophets would be consumed by the sword during Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. Jehoiachim had been warned by Jeremiah not to withhold tribute from Nebuchadnezzar but Jehoiachim heeded the words of the false prophets who advised him to withhold it. "Nebuchadnezzar was incensed, invaded the land and destroyed it, including the false prophets."[20]"The deceit of their own heart ..." (Jeremiah 14:14). Jeremiah thus described the various methods of "prophesying" employed by the false prophets; but these words do not mean that the false prophets were deceived in their own hearts, being therefore sincere but misguided men; ah no! "This is a reference, not to self-deceit, but to willful and intentional fraud."[21] We also believe that the same thing applies to many false teachers today. They are not sincere, misguided men, but unbelievers, preaching that in which they have no confidence at all.These verses reveal a profound misunderstanding of the covenant. Both the false prophets and the people, "imagined that continual and wanton violation of the terms of that covenant would not result in the operation of the curses of that covenant!"[22] What fools they were! However, we should reserve a little of our pity to the men of our own day who just as vainly imagine that, "We are justified by faith alone." These ancient protagonists of that same doctrine learned to their eternal sorrow how wrong they were.ELLICOTT, " (13) Ah, Lord God!—Literally, as in Jeremiah 1:6, Alas, my Lord (Adonaן) Jehovah! We have had in Jeremiah 5:31 a glimpse of the evil influence of the great body of the prophetic order; and now the true prophet feels more bitterly than ever the misery of having to contend against it. The colleges or schools of the prophets had rapidly degenerated from their first ideal, and had become (as the Mendicant Orders did in the history of mediזval Christendom) corrupt, ambitious, seekers after popularity. So Micah (Micah 3:8-11), whose words were yet fresh in the memories of men (see Jeremiah 26:18), had spoken sharp words of the growing evil. So Ezekiel through one whole chapter (Jeremiah 13) inveighs against the guilt of the prophets, male or female, who followed their own spirit, and had seen no true vision.Ye shall not see . . .—To the eye of Jeremiah the future was clear. The sins of the people must lead to shame, defeat, and exile. Out of that discipline, but only through

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that, they might return with a better mind to better days. The false prophets took the easier and more popular line of predicting victory and “assured peace” (literally, peace of truth, i.e., true peace) for the people and their city.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:13‘Then said I, “Ah, Lord YHWH! Behold, the prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.”Jeremiah then points out that many prophets claiming to speak in the name of YHWH were promising the people that neither sword nor famine would come on them, but that they would have assured peace ‘in this place’. There are never lacking those who will promise fair weather ahead, and who dismiss ideas of God’s severity against sin, and there were plenty such in the final days of Judah before disaster came on them, as there had been previously in the days of Micah 3:8-11. It was, of course, a popular message and one that the people wanted to hear, and made life very difficult for Jeremiah with his constant warnings of judgment. It was such prophets whose urgings were responsible for the final fatal rebellion against Babylon.PULPIT, ""Pleading with Providence, the good prophet lays the blame on ill teaching, but the stern answer (Jeremiah 14:14), admitting the plea as true, rejects it as inadequate (Jeremiah 14:14), and denounces sorrows which (Jeremiah 14:17-22) the prophet passionately deprecates" (Rowland Williams). Ah, Lord God! rather, Alas! O Lord Jehovah (see on Jeremiah 1:6). The prophets say unto them. The greater part of the prophetic order had not kept pace with its more spiritual members (Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.). They still traded on those natural gifts of divination (Micah 3:6) which were, no doubt, where genuine, of Divine origin, but which, even then, needed to be supple-merited and controlled by a special impulse from the Spirit of holiness. Jeremiah, however, declares, on the authority of a revelation, that these prophets did not divine by any God-given faculty, but "the deceit of their own heart" (Verse 14). The Deuteronomic Torah, discovered after a period of concealment at the outset of Jeremiah's ministry, energetically forbids the practice of the art of divination (Deuteronomy 18:10).

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, 85

idolatries[a] and the delusions of their own minds.

BARNES, "Divination - i. e., “conjuring,” the abuse of the less understood powers of nature. It was strictly forbidden to all Jews Deu_18:10.

A thing of nought - Probably a small idol made of the more precious metals Isa_2:20. These methods the prophet declares to be the “deceit of their heart, i. e., not self-deceit, but a willful and intentional fraud.

CLARKE, "The prophets prophesy lies - They say they have visions, but they have them by divination, and they are false. The people should know their character, and avoid them but they love to have it so, and will not be undeceived.

GILL, "Then said the Lord unto me,.... In reply to the above excuse, in favour of the people: the prophets prophesy lies in my name; it is a wicked thing to tell lies; it is more so to foretell them, and that in the name of the Lord; pretending they have his authority, and are under the influence and guidance of his Spirit; and it was sinful in the people to give credit to them, and the more so in that they were forewarned of these prophets and their lies, and had the reverse told them by a true prophet of the Lord, and therefore were inexcusable. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them; all which are requisite to a prophet, or to a man's prophesying in the name of the Lord; he ought to have his mission from him, and his commission from him; his orders and credentials from him, and the things themselves which he delivers; neither of which those prophets had; nor were they able to make out those things to the people, of which they should have had satisfaction before they believed them, and therefore were highly to blame in giving heed unto them. They prophecy unto you a false vision; or, "a vision of falsehood" (m); pretending they had a vision from the Lord, when they had none: and divination; soothsaying or astrology, as some interpret it, as Kimchi observes; foretelling things by the stars: and a thing of nought; which is good for nothing, and comes to nothing: and the deceit of their hearts; which flows from their deceitful hearts and vain imaginations, and by no means to be depended upon.

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HENRY, "God not only overrules this plea, but condemns both the blind leaders and the blind followers to fall together into the ditch. 1. God disowns the flatteries (Jer_14:14): They prophesy lies in my name. They had no commission from God to prophesy at all: I neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoke unto them. They never were employed to go on any errand at all from God; he never made himself known to them, much less by them to the people; never any word of the Lord came to them, no call, no warrant, no instruction, much less did he send them on this errand, to rock them asleep in security. No; men may flatter themselves, and Satan may flatter them, but God never does. It is a false vision, and a thing of nought. Note, What is false and groundless in vain and worthless. The vision that is not true, be it ever so pleasing, is good for nothing; it is the deceit of their heart, a spider's web spun out of their own bowels, and in it they think to shelter themselves, but it will be swept away in a moment and prove a great cheat. Those that oppose their own thoughts of God's word (God indeed says so, but they think otherwise) walk in the deceit of their heart, and it will be their ruin.PULPIT, "A thing of naught. The word, however, is collective, and means all the various futile means adopted for prying into the future.

CALVIN, "We now see more clearly why the Prophet related his own complaint, and also his astonishment, of which God alone had been the witness, and that was, that the people might be more attentive to his warning. For had he only said, “The prophets deceive you, and God would have this to be made known to you,” his address would not have been so powerful, as when this question precedes, “Lord God, what is this? the prophets promise peace to this people, and forbid them to fear pestilence and war.” As then the Prophet had set forth this according to his own view and the common view of the whole people, the answer, as I have said, becomes more forcible, and more easily penetrates into the mind. God then gives this answer, Falsehood do the prophets prophesy in my nameIn my name, is emphatical; for God reminds us, that we ought to beware of every appearance of falsehood, that we ought not easily and rashly, and without discrimination, to believe all prophecies; for not everything boasted of as being divine is really so. We then see that this is a remarkable passage; for God reminds us, that we ought to exercise judgment as to prophecies, so that we may not be inconsiderately led away by anything brought forward under the pretext of his name. He would have us therefore wisely to distinguish between things; and hence I have said that this passage deserves to be specially noticed the Papists at this day vainly boast of their titles, and say that they are the real Church, that they are the pastors, and that the Church of God is the pinar of the truth; and thus they astonish and confound the simple, so that every discrimination is taken away, and whatever it pleases them to determine is to be received as an oracle. But God shews here, by the mouth of Jeremiah, that we are not rashly to believe every kind of prophecy. In my name, he says, the prophets prophesy, as though he had said, “My name is often impiously profaned by men. As then there are many who pass themselves as my servants and prophets, and who also occupy a place of dignity and exercise the

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ordinary office, yea, as there is such depravity in men, that they are not ashamed to abuse my name, wisdom and discretion ought to be exercised.” This is the first thing; for God intimates, that it is not enough for men to claim the prophetic office, except they also prove that they are true and faithful prophets.He afterwards adds, I have not sent them, nor have I commanded them, neither have I spoken to them; a vision of falsehood, etc He here takes away authority from the false prophets; for he had not sent them, nor commanded them to speak, nor spoken to them. The latter clause is more general than the rest: but these three things ought to be carefully noticed, for they serve to distinguish true from false prophets. It was then God’s purpose to mention here certain marks by which the difference between true and false prophets may be known.He says first, that they were not sent, for they obtruded themselves. Hence a call is necessary, for God would not have disorder and confusion in his ChurJeremiah It is indeed true that the call of Jeremiah was extraordinary; for when the state of the Church was rightly formed, the chief priest was the teacher of religion and true doctrine, who was now the adversary of God’s faithful servant. There were indeed some, like Amos, who were taken from the common people; yet there were none more fit for the prophetic office than the priests, for they were, as Malachi says, the messengers of the God of hosts. (Malachi 2:4) But when they became degenerate, God, in order to reproach them, raised up other prophets from obscure vinages and from the common people. It was then sometimes an interior call only; but when the Church was duly formed, a regular outward call was also necessary. However this may have been, it is certain that such as were not called by God, falsely and wickedly pretended to have his authority, being both without the outward call and without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is the first thing.It then follows, I have not commanded them Here is the second mark of distinction; for God testifies that no credit is due to the prophets, except as far as they faithfully deliver, as it were from hand to hand, what has been committed to them. If then a prophet mingles anything of his own, he is proved to be false and is not worthy of any credit. Let us hence know, that prophets are not endued with any other power, but to deliver faithfully what has been committed to them from above.But the third mark, which is added, is still more clear: God says, that he had not spoken to them; for he thus intimates that no voice but his ought to be heard in the ChurJeremiah Why then does he bid honor and reverence to be payed to his prophets? Even because they bring nothing but what he has delivered. We hence see how God allows men no power of their own to rule in his Church; but he will have obedience to be rendered to himself, so that their duty is faithfully to declare what he has committed to them. Therefore as to the command, it refers to what was particular; but when he says, I have not spoken to them, what was general is intended; it is the same as though he had said, that it was not lawful nor right for prophets and teachers to bring forward anything but what they had received from heaven.

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Hence he concludes, that they spoke falsehood and impostures, and divination and vanity, and the deceit of their own heart. (116) We hence see that as soon as men depart even in the smallest degree from God’s word, they cannot preach anything but falsehoods, wmities, impostures, errors, and deceits: and all who thoughtlessly give credit to men, without considering whether they have been sent by God, and faithfully deliver what he has committed to them, wilfully perish. But on this subject more shall be said.14.And Jehovah said to me, — Falsehood do the prophets prophesy in my name; I have not sent them, nor given them a command, Nor have I spoken to them: A vision of the fidsehood and divination, And vanity and delusion of their own heart, Do these of themselves prophesy to you.God had not sent them, the final act; he had given them no command or commission, the preceding act; he had not spoken to them, the first act. God first speaks, then gives a commission, and afterwards sends forth his servants. The vision the false prophets had was that of the falsehood of their own heart, of the divination, of the vanity, and of the delusion of their own heart. Such seems to be the meaning given by the Septuagint and the Vulgate. It was the lying vision of their own heart, it was the divination or the presage, the vanity, and the delusion of their own heart. The word for “prophesy” in the last line is in Hitthpael; and hence “of themselves” is added.Blayney gives a different view; his version is, —A false vision, and divination, and vanity, And the guile of their own heart, do these prophesy unto you.He considers “a false vision” to be an imaginary revelation; “divination,” to be something discovered by that art; “vanity,” to be the oracular response of an idol; and “guile,” to be the fraudulent suggestion of their own heart.But the simplest exposition is what I have stated: The vision, being that of their own heart, was false; it was their own divination or prognostication; it was worthless, vain, and empty; it was the effect of their own delusion. This was the character of what they prophesied. We may render the words thus, —The false vision and the divination And the vanity and the delusion of their own heart, Do these of themselves prophesy to you.— Ed.ELLICOTT, "(14) They prophesy unto you . . .—The four forms of the evil are carefully enumerated: (1) the false vision, false as being but the dream of a disordered fancy; (2) divination, by signs and auguries, as, e.g., by arrows (Ezekiel

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21:21) or cups (Genesis 44:5); (3) by “a thing of nought,” or, more accurately, the “idol” or small image of a god, used as the Teraphim were used (Ezekiel 21:21; Zechariah 10:2), as in some way forecasting the future; (4) the deceit of their heart, i.e., an imposture pure and simple, the fraud of a deliberately counterfeit inspiration.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:14‘Then YHWH said to me,“The prophets prophesy lies in my name,I sent them not,Nor have I commanded them,Nor did I speak to them,They prophesy to you a lying vision,And divination,And a thing of nought,And the deceit of their own heart.”YHWH’s reply is comprehensive as He describes the activities of such prophets, many involving methods condemned by the covenant. He declared that what these prophets were declaring in His name were lies, and that they were not prophets who had been sent by Him, or who had been commanded by Him, or who had heard His voice speaking to them (note the threefold rebuttal), for He had not spoken to them. They were thus not authorised to speak in His name. What they prophesied was a lying vision, which included what they learned from divination which was forbidden by the Law. It was a nonsense, a thing of nought, arising from their being taken up with ‘no-gods’ (as many are today), and it arose from the deceit within their own hearts.

15 Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did 90

not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine.

CLARKE, "By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed -Jeremiah had told Jehoiakim that, if he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, he should be overthrown, and the land wasted by sword and famine: the false prophets said there shall be neither sword nor famine, but peace and prosperity. The king believed them, and withheld the tribute.

Nebuchadnezzar, being incensed, invaded and destroyed the land; and the false prophets fell in these calamities. See 2Ki_25:3; Lam_2:11-19.GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets,.... The false prophets, as the following description shows: that prophecy in my name, and I sent them not; made use of his name, pretending his authority, though they were not sent by him: yet they say, sword and famine shall not be in the land; though the Lord by his true prophet had said there should be both; which proves that they were not sent by the Lord, since what they said was in direct opposition to the word of the Lord; wherefore their doom in righteous judgment follows: by sword and famine shall these prophets be consumed; they should be some of the first, if not the first that should perish by these calamities; which would abundantly prove the falsehood of their predictions, and show that their lies could neither secure themselves nor others from the judgments which the Lord had said should come upon them.

HENRY 15-16, "He passes sentence upon the flatterers, Jer_14:15. As for the prophets, who put this abuse upon the people by telling them they shall have peace, and this affront upon God by telling them so in God's name, let them know that they shall have no peace themselves. They shall fall first by those very judgments which they have flattered others with the hopes of an exemption from. They undertook to warrant people that sword and famine should not be in the land; but it shall soon appear how little their warrants are good for, when they themselves shall be cut off by sword and famine. How should they secure others or foretel peace to them when they cannot secure themselves, nor have such a foresight of their own calamities as to get out of the way of them? Note, The sorest punishment await those who promise sinners impunity in their sinful ways. 3. He lays the flattered under the same doom: The people to whom they prophesy lies, and

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who willingly suffer themselves to be thus imposed upon, shall die by sword and famine, Jer_14:16. Note, The unbelief of the deceived, with all the falsehood of the deceivers, shall not make the divine threatenings of no effect; sword and famine will come, whatever they say to the contrary; and those will be least safe that are most secure. Impenitent sinners will not escape the damnation of hell by saying that they can never believe there is such a thing, but will feel what they will not fear. It is threatened that this people shall not only fall by sword and famine, but that they shall be as it were hanged up in chains, as monuments of that divine justice which they set at defiance; their bodies shall be cast out, even in the streets of Jerusalem, which of all places, one would think, should be kept clear from such nuisances: there they shall lie unburied; their nearest relations, who should do them that last office of love, being so poor that they cannot afford it, or so weakened with hunger that they are not able to attend it, or so overwhelmed with grief that they have no heart to it, or so destitute of natural affection that they will not pay them so much respect. Thus will God pour their wickedness upon them, that is, the punishment of their wickedness; the full vials of God's wrath shall be poured upon them, to which they have made themselves obnoxious. Note, When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and of the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another.

JAMISON, "(Jer_5:12, Jer_5:13).By sword and famine ... consumed — retribution in kind both to the false prophets and to their hearers (Jer_14:16).

CALVIN, "Jeremiah, after having declared to the false prophets, that as they had by their flatteries deceived the people, they would have to suffer the punishment they had deserved, turns now his address to the people themselves. God might, however, have seemed to deal with them rather hardly, that he inflicted so severe a punishment on men who had been deceived; but the answer to this is evident; for it is certain that except the world winingly sought falsehoods, the power of the devil to deceive would not be so great. When men therefore are led astray by impostures, it happens through their own fault, inasmuch as they are more ready to embrace vanity than to submit to God and his word. And we must remember that saying of Paul, that all the reprobate are blinded and given up to a reprobate mind, because they wilfully seek falsehood, and will not obey the truth. (Romans 1:28) And on this account God declares that he tries the hearts of men, whenever false prophets come abroad; for every one who really fears God shall by no means be led away by the deceits of Satan and of impostors. Hence, whenever men are too credulous and readily embrace deceptions, it is certain that their hypocrisy is thus justly punished by God. And it was well known to the Prophet, that the Jews ever wished for such prophets as soothed their ears and promised them an abundant harvest and a fruitful vintage. (Micah 2:11) As then they had itching ears, a liberty was justly given to Satan to deluge the whole land with falsehood; and so indeed it happened. There is then no wonder that the Lord was so severe in chastising the people; for

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they had not been deceived except through their own fault. The same thing happens at this day. Though we are touched with pity when we see the ministers of Satan prevail in deceiving the common people: yet we must remember that a reward is rendered by heaven for the impiety of men, who either extinguish or smother the light of God as much as they can, and seek to plunge into darkness.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:15 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.Ver. 15. Yet they say.] Heb., They are saying. This is all their song, though the present famine doth in part confute them; but the people were willing enough to be deceived, and were therefore worthily punished. Being infatuated, they were seduced; and being so seduced, they were justly judged, as Augustine somewhere. The blind led the blind, and both fell into the ditch, though it befell the blind guides to lie nethermost.

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.

BARNES, "I will pour ... - i. e., their wickedness shall be brought home to them.

CLARKE, "And the people - shall be cast out - They shall be destroyed, because they preferred their lying words to my truth, proclaimed by thee.

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GILL, "And the people to whom they prophesy,.... That is, such of them as gave credit to their prophecies: shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword; they dying of the famine and of the sword, their carcasses should be cast out of their houses into the open streets, and there lie unburied, as a punishment for disbelieving the words of the Lord, and giving heed to the lies of the false prophets: and they shall have none to bury them; either through want of ability of body or substance, or through want of affection; or rather through want of persons to do it for them, all their relations being cut off with them, as follows: them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters; or rather, "they" (n), "their wives, and their sons, and their daughters"; these shall die by the famine and the sword, and shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem; so that they and their relatives all dying, there would be none to bury one another; and that all should suffer by these calamities were but just and righteous, since all were guilty both of idolatry, and of despising the prophets, and listening to the false ones; see Jer_7:18, for I will pour their wickedness upon them; or, "their evil upon them" (o); not the evil of sin, but the evil of punishment; the meaning is, that he would abundantly punish them for their sins, and as they deserved, though not exceeding the bounds of justice: the phrase denotes that their wickedness was great; and that in proportion to it the vials of his wrath would be poured out upon them.

JAMISON, "none to bury — (Psa_79:3).pour their wickedness — that is, the punishment incurred by their wickedness (Jer_2:19).

PULPIT, "Jer_14:16I will pour their wickedness; i.e. the fruits of their wickedness (comp. Jer_2:19, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee").

CALVIN, "This then was the reason why God so severely visited the Jews, who had been deceived by false teachers: it was owing to their previous impiety and ingratitude. And on this account also he adds at the end of the verse, I will pour forth upon them their wickedness Some think that the word רעה,roe, may denote punishment as well as wickedness, as עון,oun, also is taken for both. But the Prophet seems to give a reason why God had resolved to execute so dreadful a judgment on the Jews; and the reason was, because they were worthy of such a reward. I am therefore inclined to render the word wickedness, as though he had said, “A dreadful calamity indeed awaits this people; but that they may not complain of my severity, they shall receive the reward of their own wickedness.” However this may be, the Prophet no doubt wished here to close the mouths of the Jews, that they

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might not proceed in their evasions, as though God treated them with too little kindness. Hence then it appears, that God does not heedlessly execute his vengeance on the innocent; but that the teachers and the whole people, who approved of them, were involved in the same punishment. (117)And he says, They shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem by the famine and the sword, or on account of the famine and the sword. They shall then all of them, that is, their carcases, be cast out; for their carcases are evidently meant, as he immediately adds, and no one shall bury them; and he mentions their wives and children. And these had no excuse for themselves, for we have seen in the seventh chapter that this charge was brought against them, rothat the children gathered wood, that the parents kindled the fire, and that the women kneaded the dough to make cakes for their idols. The Prophet then intimates, that no one would escape, because they were all implicated in the same wickedness, some more and some less, but so far, however, that the children were not to go unpunished, because they followed their fathers, nor the wives, because they followed the example of their husbands. It follows —15.Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, — As to the prophets who prophesy in my name, (Though I have not sent them, yet they say, — The sword and the famine shall not be in this land) By the sword and by the famine shall they perish:16.These prophets, and the people, to whom they prophesy, Shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem, On account of the famine and the sword; And there will be none to bury them — Neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters; Thus will I pour upon them their own wickedness.The preceding connection is favored by the Septuagint and the Arabic, but the other versions do not join the “prophets” and the “people” together. “Their own wickedness” is “their own evils” in the Septuagint, — “their own evil” in the Vulgate, — and “their own wickedness” in the Syriac. If rendered “wickedness,” then it is a metonymy for the fruit or effect of wickedness; if “evil” then the meaning is, the evil due to them. — Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:16 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.Ver. 16. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out.] They shall be no more excused by their having been deluded, than he that in his drink committeth adultery or murder is excused by his drunkenness. A drunkard, saith Aristotle, deserveth double punishment: (a) first for his drunkenness, and then for the sin committed in and by his drunkenness; so here. See on Jeremiah 14:15.COFFMAN, "Verse 16

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BOTH PEOPLE AND FALSE PROPHETS ARE DOOMED"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. And 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 wound. If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge."Following false teachers is no valid excuse for not obeying God's Word. These words prophesy the destruction of false prophets and their followers alike. As Jesus put it, "If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch."PETT, "Jeremiah 14:16“And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they will have none to bury them - them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.”And not only would the false prophets experience it, but also the sinful people of Jerusalem. There would be massive slaughter and large numbers of deaths as a result of famine and sword, so that the bodies would be thrown out into the streets with none to bury them. And this would happen to all, to the menfolk, to their wives, and to their sons and daughters because He would pour out on them the punishment for their many sins. This no doubt partially occurred during the droughts described above as people died of malnourishment, but it would be multiplied over and over again when the invaders arrived.

17 “Speak this word to them:“‘Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing;for the Virgin Daughter, my people,

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has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow.

BARNES, "A message from God to the effect that the calamity would be so overwhelming as to cause perpetual weeping; it is set before the people under the representation of Jeremiah’s own sorrow.

The virgin daughter of my people - The epithet testifies to God’s previous care of Judah. She had been as jealously guarded from other nations as virgins are in an oriental household (compare Son_4:12).

CLARKE, "For the virgin daughter of my people is broken - First, the land was sadly distressed by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt. Secondly, it was laid under a heavy tribute by Nebuchadnezzar. And, thirdly, it was nearly desolated by a famine afterwards. In a few years all these calamities fell upon them; these might be well called a great breach, a very grievous blow.

GILL, "Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them,.... Instead of praying for the people, the prophet has a doleful lamentation put into his mouth, to pronounce in their hearing, in order to assure them of the calamities that were coming upon them, and to affect them with them. Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: or "be silent" (p); signifying that there would be quickly just reason and occasion for incessant grief and sorrow in them; and if they were so hardened as not to be affected with their case, he could not refrain shedding tears night and day in great abundance; which would have a voice in them, to call upon them to weeping and lamentation also. Some take these words to be a direction and instruction to the people; so the Septuagint, "bring down upon your eyes tears night and day, and let them not cease;'' and the Arabic version, "pour out of your eyes tears night and day continually;'' and the Syriac version is, "let our eyes drop tears night and day incessantly.'' For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow; cities are sometimes called virgins, which were never taken; and

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so Jerusalem here, it having never been taken since it was in the hands of the people of Judah; nor were its inhabitants as yet carried captive, but now would be; which, together with the famine and the sword, by which many should perish, is the great breach and grievous blow spoken of; and which is given as a reason, and was a sufficient one, for sorrow and mourning. HENRY 17-18, "The present deplorable state of Judah and Jerusalem is here made

the matter of the prophet's lamentation (Jer_14:17, Jer_14:18) and the occasion of his prayer and intercession for them (Jer_14:19), and I am willing to hope that the latter, as well as the former, was by divine direction, and that these words (Jer_14:17), Thus shalt thou say unto them (or concerning them, or in their hearing), refer to the intercession, as well as to the lamentation, and then it amounts to a revocation of the directions given to the prophet not to pray for them, Jer_14:11. However, it is plain, by the prayers we find in these verses, that the prophet did not understand it as a prohibition, but only as a discouragement, like that 1Jo_5:16, I do not say he shall pray for that. Here,I. The prophet stands weeping over the ruins of his country; God directs him to do so, that, showing himself affected, he might, if possible, affect them with the foresight of the calamities that were coming upon them. Jeremiah must say it not only to himself, but to them too: Let my eyes run down with tears, Jer_14:17. Thus he must signify to them that he certainly foresaw the sword coming, and another sort of famine, more grievous even than this which they were now groaning under; this was in the country for want of rain, that would be in the city through the straitness of the siege. The prophet speaks as if he already saw the miseries attending the descent which the Chaldeans made upon them: The virgin daughter of my people, that is as dear to me as a daughter to her father, is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow, much greater and more grievous than any she has yet sustained; for (Jer_14:18) in the field multitudes lie dead that were slain by the sword, and in the city multitudes lie dying for want of food. Doleful spectacles! “The prophets and the priests, the false prophets that flattered them with their lies and the wicked priests that persecuted the true prophets, are now expelled their country, and go about either as prisoners and captives, whithersoever their conquerors lead them, or as fugitives and vagabonds, wherever they can find shelter and relief, in a land that they know not.” Some understand this of the true prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel, that were carried to Babylon with the rest. The prophet's eyes must run down with tears day and night, in prospect of this, that the people might be convinced, not only that this woeful day would infallibly come, and would be a very woeful day indeed, but that he was far from desiring it, and would as gladly have brought them messages of peace as their false prophets, if he might have had warrant from heaven to do it. Note, Because God, though he inflicts death on sinners, yet delights not in it, it becomes his ministers, though in his name they pronounce the death of sinners, yet sadly to lament it.JAMISON, "(Jer_9:1; Lam_1:16). Jeremiah is desired to weep ceaselessly for the

calamities coming on his nation (called a “virgin,” as being heretofore never under foreign yoke), (Isa_23:4).PULPIT, "Therefore thou shalt say, etc. There is something strange and contrary to verisimilitude in the prefixing of this formula, not to a Divine revelation, but to a mere expression of the pained human feelings of the prophet. It is possible that the editor of

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Jeremiah’s prophecies thought the paragraph which begins here needed something to link it with the preceding passage, and selected his formula rather unsuitably. Let mine eyes run down, etc. (comp. Jer_13:27). Jeremiah’s tender compassion shows itself in his choice of the expression, the virgin daughter of my people, just as we feel an added bitterness in the premature death of a cherished maiden.

CALVIN, "God shews here again how tardy, yea, how stupid the people were, whom no threatenings could induce to return to a right mind. When, therefore, they daringly neglected all threatenings, God bids a sad spectacle to be presented to them, justly calculated to fin them with fear and shame; he bids his Prophet to speak rims to them, “Behold, I shall be wholly dissolved into tears, and that on your account.” The Prophet, no doubt, wept sincerely when he saw his own people wilfully drawing upon themselves the wrath of God and their final dest, ruction; nor could he divest himself of his humane feelings: but he speaks not here only of his own solicitude, but God himself bids him thus to speak, in order that the Jews might be ashamed of their carelessness, as they ridiculed or despised, with dry eyes, the calamity which was nigh them, and the Prophet alone wept for them. We have spoken of this in the ninth chapter and in other places. There indeed the Prophet wished that his eyes were fountains of tears; but his object was, no doubt, not only to shew his concern for his own nation, but also thus to try whether they could be turned to repentance, their hardness being so great: and in this place the same thing is shewn still more clearly; for God bids the Prophet to weep, not in secret, but to declare this to the whole people, Behold, my eyes come down into tears, and there shall be no rest, no cessation.We now perceive the design of the Holy Spirit; for as the obstinacy of the people was so great that they shed no tears, though God often terrified them with the most dreadful threatenings, it was necessary that this coming calamity should be set before their eyes, in the person of Jeremiah, as in a mirror, in order that they might at length learn to fear. Whenever such passages occur, let us remember that at this day also men are equally stupid, so that they ought not to be less sharply urged, and that, God in the gospel adds vehemence and sharp goads to the truth; for such is not only the sloth of our hearts, but also their hardness, that it is necessary to constrain those who will not suffer themselves to be drawn and led.Some render the words, “Descend shall tears from mine eyes;” but more correct is the other version, “Mine eyes shall descend into, tears,” as ב,beth, is to be prefixed to דמעה damoe, or ל lamed; and it is added, night and day, because the daughter of my people is broken with a great breaJeremiah As yet the Jews were indeed existing as a nation; but the Prophet gives here a striking representation, as though the scene was present, that they might know that a sudden destruction was at hand, though they as yet trusted in their own auxiliaries; nor indeed could they have been led to fear God in any degree until, their quietness was disturbed. (118)He calls them the virgin daughter of his people, not for honor’s sake, but because

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God had hitherto spared the Jews. Virgin is sometimes taken in a good sense; for God, when speaking of the holy marriage, by which he had bound the Jews to himself, compares his people to a virgin. But the daughter of Babylon is also often called a virgin, because the Chaldeans, through long peace, had accustomed themselves to delicacies. So also in this place the Prophet, by way of concession, says that his own nation were soft and tender, because they had been borne with through the indulgence of God. But as in war virgins are exposed to violations, and the lust of men rages without shame and beyond all limits, so God intended here to set forth the fierceness of his vengeance; as though he had said, “Now indeed ye are tender and delicate young women, but in a short time your condition will be changed; nor is there any reason why the constant happiness which ye have hitherto enjoyed should deceive you.”And for the same purpose he adds, that the smiting would be very bitter It was indeed necessary by many words to exaggerate that vengeance, of which the people made no account. It now follows —17.And thou shalt say to them this word, — Pour down shall my eyes the tear Night and day, and shall not cease; For great has been the breach, Broken has been the virgin of the daughter of my people; The smiting has been very grievous.The event, though future, is represented as having past; for he relates a vision. The “daughter” is not in apposition but in construction with “virgin.” Vitringa says, that a state, or a kingdom, is often called a virgin in the prophets. It is rendered here “kingdom” by the Targum. See Isaiah 37:22.“Those cities,” says Lowth, “are called virgins, which never came into a conqueror’s hands.” Jerusalem was in this sense a virgin. He says further, “The dissolution of the body politic is called a breach, in allusion to the breaking of the limbs of the human body.” The “smiting,” or the stroke, was “very grievous,” because the body politic, or the state, was shattered into pieces.” — Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:17 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.Ver. 17. Let mine eyes run down.] This the prophet did doubtless in good earnest; like as Samuel mourned for the rejection of Saul, and our Saviour wept over Jerusalem.And let them not cease.] Heb., Be silent; for tears also have a voice, [Psalms 39:12] and do oft prove very effectual orators.

PETT, "Jeremiah 14:17100

“And you shall say this word to them,‘Let my 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 wound.’ ”Jeremiah is to appeal to the people on the basis of his own grief for them. He is to bring home to them that his eyes run with tears day and night because of what is coming on his people. Here was no hardened, denunciating prophet, but a prophet whose love reached out longingly on behalf of his people, even though he knew that there was no hope for them. Right to the end they would have no excuse for their failure to respond from the heart to YHWH.But the reason for his tears was the terrible wound that was about to be inflicted on Judah, a great breach that would break them. And this is made all the more terrible by his description of them as ‘the virgin daughter of my people’, a description which brings out their helplessness in the face of such a fearsome enemy (compare Jeremiah 6:2; Jeremiah 8:11; Jeremiah 8:19). The pathos is underlined by the fact that this is what they should have been, a pure daughter, untarnished and untouched. The irony comes out in that they were far from that, having adulterated themselves with idols.PULPIT, "Therefore thou shalt say, etc. There is something strange and contrary to verisimilitude in the prefixing of this formula, not to a Divine revelation, but to a mere expression of the pained human feelings of the prophet. It is possible that the editor of Jeremiah's prophecies thought the paragraph which begins here needed something to link it with the preceding passage, and selected his formula rather unsuitably. Let mine eyes run down, etc. (comp. Jeremiah 13:27). Jeremiah's tender compassion shows itself in his choice of the expression, the virgin daughter of my people, just as we feel an added bitterness in the premature death of a cherished maiden.

18 If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword;if I go into the city,101

I see the ravages of famine.Both prophet and priest have gone to a land they know not.’”

CLARKE, "If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword - Every place presents frightful spectacles; the wounded, the dying, the starving, and the slain; none to bury the dead, none to commiserate the dying, none to bring either relief or consolation. Even the prophets and the priests are obliged to leave the cities, and wander about in unfrequented and unknown places, seeking for the necessaries of life. Dr. Blayney thinks that the going about of the prophets and priests of the land, is to be understood thus: - “They went trafficking about with their false doctrines and lying predictions, as peddlers do with their wares, seeking their own gain.” I think the other sense preferable.

GILL, "If I go forth into the field,.... Without the city, where was the camp of the enemy besieging it then behold the slain with the sword! the sword of the enemy; who by sallying out of the city upon them, or by endeavouring to make their escape into the country, fell into their hands, and were slain by them. And if I enter into the city; the city of Jerusalem: then behold them that are sick with the famine! just ready to die, being starved for want of provisions; and multitudes dead, and their carcasses lying in the streets unburied; the prophet does not make mention of the dead indeed, only of the sick with famine; the reason of which, Kimchi says, is because the sick were more than the dead. Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they knew not; into the land of Chaldea, a strange and foreign country, whither they were carried captive, both in the times of Jehoiakim and of Zedekiah, and whither they might go in ways far about: and this seems to be understood of false prophets and wicked priests, that had led the people about, and had caused them to wander from the ways of God and his worship; and therefore, in righteous retaliation, they are led in round about ways to a land unknown to them: though some think that the true prophets and priests of the Lord may be meant, as Ezekiel and Daniel, who were carried captive into Babylon: others interpret them of such going about in the land of Judea seeking for bread and water, or food in the time of the famine; but they know not (q), as the last clause may be literally rendered, that is, men know

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them not, take no notice of them, show no regard to them, and give them no relief; the famine being so sore, that everyone was for himself, and could afford no help to others, even to the prophets and priests. Some render the words, "yea, the priest and the prophet make merchandise against the land"; or, "through the lands" (r); by deceiving the people with their false prophecies: or rather, go about the land making merchandise (s); of the souls of men; see 2Pe_2:3, making a gain of their visions and prophecies: and they know not; the people are not aware of their deception and falsehood. The Targum is, "for even the scribe and the priest are turned to their own negotiations or merchandises, to that which is in the land, neither do they inquire;'' they minded their own affairs, and inquired not for, nor sought after, the people's good.

JAMISON, "go about — that is, shall have to migrate into a land of exile. Horsley translates, “go trafficking about the land (see Jer_5:31, Margin; 2Co_4:2; 2Pe_2:3), and take no knowledge” (that is, pay no regard to the miseries before their eyes) (Isa_1:3; Isa_58:3). If the literal sense of the Hebrew verb be retained, I would with English Version understand the words as referring to the exile to Babylon; thus, “the prophet and the priest shall have to go to a strange land to practice their religious traffic (Isa_56:11; Eze_34:2, Eze_34:3; Mic_3:11).PULPIT, "A picture of the state of things after the capture of Jerusalem: the slain without, the famine-stricken within. The latter are described allusively as "sicknesses of famine" (so literally). As a peculiarly striking evidence of the downfall of greatness, it is added that even prophet and priest have to go about into a land that they know not. The verb used here can obviously not have its ordinary sense of going about for purposes of traffic. Aramaic usage suggests, however, a suitable meaning; what the prophet sketches before us is a company of these ex-grandees "begging their way" into an unknown land.

CALVIN, "He confirms the same thing in other words, not on account of the obscurity of what he had said, but because he knew that he was speaking to the deaf, or that such was their sloth, that they needed many goads. He says, in short, that there would be in the city no defense for the people to shield them from the punishment that was at hand, and that if they went into the fields the whole land would be covered with enemies, who would destroy them. This is the sum of the whole.But he speaks as though he saw the event with his eyes, If I go out into the field, he says, their carcases meet me; for the enemy destroys with his drawn sword all who venture to go forth. Then he says, If I go into the city, there famine kins those whom the enemy has not reached. (119) As he had said before, “Behold, all were east forth in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword.” But what he had said of the streets of Jerusalem he extends now to the fields; as though he had said,

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that there would be no place of rest to the Jews; for if they attempted to flee away, they met with the swords of enemies, and if they sought hiding — places, the famine would meet them, so that they would perish without being destroyed by any enemy.The prophet, he says, as well as the priest shall wander, shall go round to the land and know not Some explain the last part of the verse as though the Prophet had said, When both the prophets and the priests shall be driven into exile, after many wanderings, they shall not understand that exile is a punishment due to their sins. They therefore take the words, ולא ידעו vela idou, and they shall not know, in a general sense, as though the Prophet here condemned that brutal blindness which possessed the minds of the people, nay, even of the priests, who did not consider that God punished them for their sins. Others explain the words more simply, — that they would go round to the land, that is, that they would come to Chaldea by various windings and by long circuits, and would come to a land they knew not, that is, which was before unknown to them. But I know not whether this was the meaning of the Prophet. Certainly a third view seems more suitable to me, though it has none in its favor, that is, that the priests and prophets would go round to seek subterfuges, as they would be destitute of all means of escape, not knowing what to do; and they shall not know, that is, they shall find that a sound mind is by God taken from them, because they had demented others. Hence I doubt not but that the Prophet had especially denounced this punishment on the wicked priests and the false prophets, because they thought that they would have some way of escape; but they would be mistaken; for their own conceit would at length disappoint them; and when they thought of this and of that, God would bring to nothing their crafty ways. And they were worthy of such a punishment, because they had fascinated the wretched people with their lies; and we also know that they were proud of their own crafts and wiles. The Prophet therefore derides this false confidence and says, They shall go round through the land and shall not understand, that is, all their counsels and plans shall be, without any fruit or benefit, though they may be long in forming them. (120) It follows —If I go out to the field, Then behold the piercings of the sword;And if I enter the city, Then behold the wastings of the famine.— Ed.Yet both the prophet and also the priest Go trafficking about the city and take no knowledge.Meaning, that they went about with their false predictions, like pedlars, for gain, and paid no regard to the miseries of the country. This sense suits the passage, but the other is the most obvious and natural. — Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:18 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.

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Ver. 18. If I go forth into the field.] The prophet here sets forth the siege as present, though it was many years after, the more to affect the people.Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.] Or, Go about the land - sc., begging their bread, or fleeing their miseries - and men know them not, though men of such rank and quality.COKE, "Jeremiah 14:18. The prophet and the priest go about, &c.— Jeremiah is here manifestly describing what he saw when he entered the city; namely, men sick and worn out with famine; and among these even the priests and the prophets, panting on the ground, half dead, and not able to distinguish anybody. See Psalms 38:11. And in this view the passage should be rendered, Yea, both the prophet and the priest lie panting on the ground, nor do they know any one. This is Houbigant's interpretation, which seems in every respect agreeable to the context. Others, however, understand it according to our translation, of the captivity of the priests and prophets, who were carried away by Nebuchadnezzar.ELLICOTT, " (18) Them that are sick with famine.—Literally, with even a more awful force, as summing all individual sufferings in one collective unity, the sickness of famine—the pestilence that follows on starvation.Go about into a land that they know not.—Literally, go about (as in Genesis 34:10, where the Authorised version has “trade”) in a land and know not, i.e., whither they go—are in a land of exile, and know not where to find a home, or where they may be dragged next, or, perhaps, with some commentators. learn no wisdom from their bitter experience. There is no adequate ground for the rendering in the margin, which, besides, gives no satisfactory meaning.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:18‘If I go forth into the open country (field),Then, behold, the slain with the sword!And if I enter into the city,Then, behold, those who are sick with famine!For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land,And have no knowledge.’Jeremiah looks ahead and describes the vision of the future that YHWH has given him. Wherever he goes he will find nothing but death. When he goes into the open country all he will find will be bodies slain with the sword. When he enters the

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besieged cities he will find nothing but famine and need. There is much sickness because of famine. In contrast when the priests and the prophets go about the land they see nothing of this. For they are without the knowledge of what YHWH is going to do. They are oblivious to the future. They ‘go about the land and know not’.PULPIT, "A picture of the state of things after the capture of Jerusalem: the slain without, the famine-stricken within. The latter are described allusively as "sicknesses of famine" (so literally). As a peculiarly striking evidence of the downfall of greatness, it is added that even prophet and priest have to go about into a land that they know not. The verb used here can obviously not have its ordinary sense of going about for purposes of traffic. Aramaic usage suggests, however, a suitable meaning; what the prophet sketches before us is a company of these ex-grandees "begging their way" into an unknown land.

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.

BARNES, "A second (compare Jer_14:7-9) earnest intercession, acknowledging the wickedness of the nation, but appealing to the covenant and to God’s Almighty power.

Lothed - More exactly, “hath thrown away as worthless.”CLARKE, "We looked for peace - We expected prosperity when Josiah purged

the land of idolatry.And there is no good - For we have relapsed into our former ways.

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GILL, "Hast thou utterly rejected Judah?.... The prophet, though forbid, proceeds to prayers and expostulations on account of this people, the people of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin: or, "in rejecting hast thou rejected Judah?" (t) from being a nation, from being under thy care and protection? hast thou cast them away, and wilt thou suffer them to go into captivity as the ten tribes? what! Judah, whom the Lord hath chosen, and where was his dwelling place? what! Judah, from whom the chief ruler, the Messiah, was to come? what! Judah, from whom the sceptre was not to depart, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, till Shiloh came? and, what! wilt thou reject, and utterly reject, this tribe, upon which so many favours have been bestowed, and from which so much is expected? Hath thy soul loathed Zion? whom thou hast formerly so much loved and delighted in, and chosen for thine habitation; Zion, the joy of the whole earth, and a perfection of beauty. Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? brought upon them his judgments; or, however, was about to bring them upon them, famine, sword, and captivity; and there was no deliverance from them, no way to escape them, no relief, no remedy, or no healing, as in 2Ch_36:16. We looked for peace: as the false prophets foretold; or through alliance with neighbouring nations, even all safety and prosperity; and had no notion of desolation and war: and there is no good; as was promised and expected, but all the reverse: and for the time of healing; national and civil disorders, from which might have been hoped for a train of blessings: and behold trouble! fears, frights, perplexities, and distresses; trouble from without, and from within. The Targum is, "a time of pardon of sins, and behold punishment of sins.''

HENRY, " He stands up to make intercession for them; for who knows but God will yet return and repent? While there is life there is hope, and room for prayer. And, though there were many among them who neither prayed themselves nor valued the prophet's prayers, yet there were some who were better affected, would join with him in his devotions, and set the seal of their Amen to them.

1. He humbly expostulates with God concerning the present deplorableness of their case, Jer_14:19. It was very sad, for, (1.) Their expectations from their God failed them; they thought he had avouched Judah to be his, but now, it seems, he has utterly rejectedit, and cast it off, will not own any relation to it nor concern for it. They thought Zion was the beloved of his soul, was his rest for ever; but now his soul even loathes Zion, loathes even the services there performed, for the sake of the sins there committed. (2.) Then no marvel that all their other expectations failed them: They were smitten, and their wounds were multiplied, but there was no healing for them; they looked for peace,107

because after a storm there usually comes a calm and fair weather, after a long fit of wet; but there was no good, things went still worse and worse. They looked for a healing time, but could not gain so much as a breathing time. “Behold, trouble at the door, by which we hoped peace would enter. And is it so then? Hast thou indeed rejected Judah?Justly thou mightest. Hath thy soul loathed Zion? We deserve it should. But wilt thou not at length in wrath remember mercy?”JAMISON, "The people plead with God, Jeremiah being forbidden to do so.no healing — (Jer_15:18).peace ... no good — (Jer_8:15).

K&D, "Renewed supplication and repeated rejection of the same. - Jer_14:19. "Hast thou then really rejected Judah? or doth thy soul loathe Zion? Why hast Thou smitten us, so that there is no healing for us? We look for peace, and there is no good; for the time of healing, and behold terror! Jer_14:20. We know, Jahveh, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against Thee. Jer_14:21. Abhor not, for Thy name's sake; disgrace not the throne of Thy glory; remember, break not Thy covenant with us! Jer_14:22. Are there among the vain gods of the Gentiles givers of rain, or will the heavens give showers? Art not Thou (He), Jahveh our God? and we hope in Thee, for Thou hast made all these."

CALVIN, "The Prophet now turns to prayer and to complaints, that by his example he might at length rouse the people to lamentation, in order that they might humbly implore God’s forgiveness, and sincerely confess their sins and be displeased with themselves. At the same time he indirectly reproves that hardness of which we have before spoken. As then he effected nothing by teaching, he changed his manner of speaking, and leaving the people he addressed God, according to what we have before noticed.He then asks, Repudiating hast thou repudiated Judah? Has thy soul abominated Sion? (121) Jeremiah seems to reason here from what is inconsistent, as though he had said, “Is it possible that thou hast rejected the tribe of Judah and Mount Sion?”For God had promised that he should ever have a lamp at Jerusalem. The ten tribes had already been overthrown, and their kingdom had not only been distressed, but wholly demolished: still there remained a seed, because the tribe of Judah continued, which was as it were the flower of the whole people; and from him the salvation of the world was to proceed. Hence the Prophet does here, as it were, expostulate with God, as though he had said, “Thou hast chosen the tribe of Judah for this end, that it might be safe perpetually; thou hast also commanded the Temple to be built on Mount Sion for thy name; thou hast said that it would be thy rest for ever: hadst thou then by rejecting rejected the tribe of Judah? does thy soul abominate Mount Sion?

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There seems, however, to be a kind of irony implied: for though Jeremiah prayed sincerely, he yet intended to remind the people how foolishly they promised themselves impunity as to their sins, because God had his habitation in the Temple, and because Jerusalem was as it were his royal palace. It is indeed evident that the Prophet recalled to mind the promises of God; but yet he wished briefly to shew, that though God should apparently destroy the remnant, and suffer the Temple to be demolished, he would be still faithful to his promises. In asking therefore these questions, as in astonishment, he had partly a regard to God, and partly also he reminded the people, that though God delivered the body of the people to destruction, he would yet be faithful and constant in what he had promised.He then says, Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing? There is no doubt but that the Prophet in this place also wished to turn God to mercy for this reason, because he had promised to be merciful to the posterity of David, though sometimes he punished them for their sins; for there was this remarkable promise,“If his children shall offend and violate my covenant, I will smite them with a rod and chastise their iniquities; yet my mercy will I not take from them.”(2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 89:31)And to the same purpose is what he said in Jeremiah 10:24,“Chastise me, O Lord, but in judgment,”that is, moderately, “lest thou bring me to nothing.” There the Prophet, as we have said, reminded God of his covenant; and he does the same here, Why hast thou smitten, so that there is no healing? For the punishment which God inflicts on his Church would be, as he declares, a kind of medicine; but when there is no hope of healing, God seems to render void what he had promised. Hence Jeremiah goes on in drawing his argument from what is inconsistent, as though he had said, that it was not possible that God should so severely smite his people as not to allow a place for forgiveness, but that he would at length be intreated and heal the wound inflicted.We have expected peace, and there is no good; and the time of healing, and behold trouble, or terror. (122) This latter part of the verse confirms what I just stated, that the Prophet had partly a reference to God in this mode of prayer, and that he partly reproved the Jews, because they thought, being deceived by false confidence, that they were beyond the reach of danger, inasmuch as God had consecrated Jerusalem, that his name might be there called upon, and that the Temple might be his perpetual habitation. As then he saw that his nation were inebriated, as it were, with this foolish notion, he intended briefly to shew to them that God would Ilave an unknown way by which he would retain his faithfulness, and yet punish the ungodly and the transgressors; for by saying, “We expected peace, and there is no good,” he certainly does not commend the fidelity of the people; for relying on God’s promises, they sought comfort in evils, and hoped that God would at length be

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exorable and propitious. The word expecting is not to be taken in a good sense; but he on the contrary reproves the Jews, because they put too much faith in false prophets. We hence see that he condemns that false expectation by which they had been deceived. Hence also we learn what has been before stated, that the Jews foolishly promised to themselves impunity, because God had chosen his habitation among them; for he shews that God had not in vain threatened their ruin by his servants. This then is also the meaning when he says, We expected the time of healing, and behold terror It now follows —Despising, hast thou despised Judah? Has thy soul abhorred Sion?Had he despised Judah as a worthless thing, and had he abhorred Sion as a filthy thing? — Ed.Why hast thou smitten us, and there is for us no healing? Why has there been hope for peace, and there is no good? And for the time of healing, and behold terror?The word for “hope,” or longing, or looking for, is a participial noun, but rendered by the versions as though it were a verb in the first person plural. As “smitten” is in the past tense, so has been is to be understood before “hope.” — Ed.COFFMAN, "Verse 19JEREMIAH PLEADS WITH GOD NOT TO BREAK THE COVENANT"Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God? therefore we will wait for thee; for thou hast made all these things."This is one of the saddest appeals in the Bible. Their day of grace almost over, their nation threatened and anticipating an absolute and irrevocable destruction, their false prophets facing exactly the same doom they faced, their acknowledgment, at last, of their consummate wickedness which was a long continuation of the unceasing wickedness of the whole nation for ages past, yet, with all of that, they were desperate, pleading with God not to abhor them, pleading for him not to break the covenant, the very covenant which they had not merely broken, but which they had shattered and rejected."The throne of they glory ..." (Jeremiah 14:21) "This is a reference to the temple (2 Kings 19:15; Psalms 99:1)."[23]

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Feinberg noted that this prayer for the people was based upon three things: "(1) God's reputation, (2) his temple, and (3) his covenant with Israel"[24]"Here were a group of people who had gone too far in sin, so far that they have become ignorant of God's character, that God is indeed a God of holiness and righteousness. How could they be such fools?"[25]"Break not thy covenant with us ..." (Jeremiah 14:21). Despite the fact that they had already broken that covenant, yet they wished God to go ahead and fulfill his part of it.They ceased to be God's people when they abandoned themselves to idolatry; yet they still wanted God to be their God, to defend, support and bless them. They appeared to be ignorant of the fact that when the conditions of a covenant are broken by one party, the other is no longer bound by it. The covenant is necessarily annulled."Are there any among the vanities ..." (Jeremiah 14:22)? This question suggests that of the apostle Peter who asked, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou only hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). "The vanities here are the artificial deities,"[26] that is, all of the idol gods.PARKER, ""Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us?" ( Jeremiah 14:19).The Lord had told the prophet it was useless to pray for the offender, but the prophet scarcely believed it. It is hard for those who know God to believe that he will resort to judgment. Jonah said: "I knew thou wouldst not destroy Nineveh, I knew I was on a fool"s errand; I knew thy mercy, thy love, thy pity; I had been calling, In forty days Nineveh should be destroyed, and I knew that if Nineveh but whimpered thou wouldst humiliate me and spare the city." So it Isaiah , the individual must go down, the personal consciousness must be rebuked; the city must be saved, the man must be redeemed, and the redeeming God will presently talk to the complaining prophet, and mayhap reconcile him."Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers?" ( Jeremiah 14:22).Remember it was a time of dearth. The question turned upon the presence of grass; there was no grass, and therefore the hind calved in the field and forsook its own offspring, that it might abate its own hunger, seeking grass in some far-away place. Natural instincts were subdued and overcome, and the helpless offspring was left in helplessness, that the poor dying mother, hunger smitten, might find a mouthful of green herbage somewhere. And the ground was dust; the ploughmen were ashamed, they resorted to that last sign of Oriental desperation and grief, to cover their heads, because there was no rain, no grass; and now the prophet asks, "Are there any

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among the vanities of the Gentiles than can cause rain?" What can the idols do? If they can give rain, let them give it now. Can the heavens themselves give showers—the blue heavens that look so kind—can they of themselves and as it were by their own motion pour a baptism of water upon the earth? No. This is the act of the living God, the providence of the redeeming Father, the miracle of love. Thus we are driven in various ways to pray. You never know what a man is religiously, until he has been well tried, hungry a long time, and had no water to drink, until his tongue is as a burning sting in his mouth, until it hardens like metal, and if he can then move his lips you may find the coward trying to pray.

PETT, "Verse 19Jeremiah Still Feels That He Must Make Some Plea On Behalf Of His People, But Is Firmly Informed That Even Though Moses And Samuel Were There To Plead The Cause Of The People They Would Not Prevail, Because Judgment On His Obstinate people Was Determined (Jeremiah 14:19 to Jeremiah 15:9).Jeremiah puts in a desperate plea for his people, unable to believe that YHWH has utterly rejected His people, and acknowledges their sin on their behalf, calling on YHWH not to forget His covenant. For he recognises that only YHWH can end the series of droughts. But he learns that for this generation YHWH’s rejection is indeed final, and that even the intercessions of men like Moses and Samuel would have made no difference. The only end that awaits is death through wild beasts, through the sword, through famine and through captivity, the latter resulting in their being scattered among the nations. And this is because of what Manasseh had done in Jerusalem in leading it astray after idols, a leading astray which they had avidly seized on to and participated in even after Manasseh’s repentance. For even though He had made every effort to win them back they had not returned from their ways. Thus inevitable judgment must come upon them. There is in this a warning for us all not to delay repentance, lest we become hardened and the opportunity slip away.Jeremiah 14:19‘ Have you utterly rejected Judah?Has your soul loathed Zion?Why have you smitten us,And there is no healing for us?We looked for peace,But no good came,

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And for a time of healing,And, behold, dismay!The pattern of questions here should be compared with Jeremiah 2:14 where a similar pattern is followed, two general questions followed by a request for an explanation. Here Jeremiah (or the people) just cannot intellectually accept that YHWH has rejected Judah, and views Zion with loathing, and seeks an explanation as to why they have been smitten with no remedy available. They had looked for such a remedy, but it had not come, and all that they had received in respect of the time of healing that they sought was dismay because it had not happened. (The questions will be answered in Jeremiah 15:5-6).

20 We acknowledge our wickedness, Lord, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against you.

BARNES, "Jer_14:20Our wickedness, and - Omit and. National sin is the sin of the fathers, perpetuated generation after generation by the children.CLARKE, "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness - This the prophet did in

behalf of the people; but, alas! they did not join him.

GILL, "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers,.... This is said by the prophet, in the name of the few faithful that were among this people, who were sensible of their own sins, the sins of their ancestors, and which they ingenuously confess; their fathers had sinned, and they had imitated them, and continued in the same, and therefore might justly expect the displeasure of the Lord, and his controversy with them: for we have sinned against thee; Jer_14:7.

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HENRY, "He makes a penitent confession of sin, speaking that language which they all should have spoken, though but few did (Jer_14:20): “We acknowledge our wickedness, the abounding wickedness of our land and the iniquity of our fathers, which we have imitated, and therefore justly smart for. We know, we acknowledge, that we have sinned against thee, and therefore thou art just in all that is brought upon us; but, because we confess our sins, we hope to find thee faithful and just in forgiving our sins.”PULPIT, "Our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers. There is a mysterious connection between the sin of the past and of the present. So in another prophet we read, "Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together [will I requite]."BI, "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness.Frank acknowledgment of guiltNext to the merit of not sinning is confessing sin. A learned man has said, “The three hardest words in the English language are—‘I was mistaken.’” Frederick the Great wrote to the Senate: “I have just lost a great battle, and it was entirely my own fault.” Goldsmith said, “This confession displayed more greatness than all his victories.” Such a prompt acknowledgment of his fault recalls Bacon’s course in more trying circumstances. “I do plainly and ingenuously confess,” said the great Chancellor, “that I am guilty of corruption, and so renounce all defence. I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed. (A. T. Pierson.)

True repentance avails with GodWhen a man undertakes to repent towards his fellowmen, it is repenting straight up a precipice; when he repents towards law it is repenting in a crocodile’s jaws; when he repents towards public sentiment, it is throwing himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns; but when he repents towards God, he repents towards all love and delicacy. God receives the soul, as the sea the bather, to return it again, purer and whiter than He took it. (H. W. Beecher.)

CALVIN, "The Prophet here prescribes no doubt to the Jews the way of appeasing God. He before uttered a prayer, partly in order to reprove the people for their wicked obstinacy, and partly to shew to the godly and the elect that there remained some hope. But now he uses a simple form of prayer, when he says, O Lord, we know, etc Hardly one in a thousand then did know; but the Prophet does not assume the character of the whole people; and why not? He doubtless knew that the faithful among the people were very few; but he dictates for posterity a right form of prayer, so that they might iu exile know that this one thing only remained for them — to confess their sins, as otherwise they could not obtain pardon.He therefore says, We know our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we

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have done wickedly against thee We have already explained the Prophet’s meaning in these few words, — that when God puts forth his hand against us, there is no hope of salvation, except we repent. But confession is here put for repentance. Hypocrites are indeed very free in confessing their sins; but the Prophet speaks here of real confession; and by stating a part for the whole, everything included in repentance, as I have said, is intended. But the object here is to shew, that they were humbly to seek forgiveness, which could not be done, except they condemned themselves before God, and thus anticipated his judgment.He speaks of the iniquity of the fathers, not that the faithful seek associates, here and there, for the sake of extenuating their guilt; but it was an aggravation of their sins, when they confessed that they were not only guilty themselves before God, but that they had brought from the womb what was, as it were, hereditary, so that they deserved death because they were the descendants of ungodly parents. Whilst hypocrites allege the examples of fathers, they think themselves thus absolved, or at least not so culpable, because they had learnt what they practice from their childhood, because a bad education had led them astray. But the faithful are of a far different mind; for they confess themselves worthy of God’s vengeance, though he inquired not into the wickedness of their fathers; and they think also that God acts justly, when he executes vengeance on account of their fathers’ sins, being thus worthy of a twofold vengeance.We now then understand what the Prophet means; and hence we learn how foolishly the Papists set up this shield against God; that is, by having the word fathers often on their lips; for they ought on the contrary to confess the wickedness and iniquities of their fathers, according to what is more fully enlarged upon in the ninth chapter of Daniel (Daniel 9:0), where he confesses that he himself and the fathers and kings had done wickedly. And in these words we may also notice, that it was not some slight fault that Jeremiah refers to when he said, “We acknowledge our iniquity and the iniquity of our fathers;” he mentions first the iniquity of the living; then the iniquity of their fathers, and adds, in the third place, “We have acted wickedly against thee.” We hence see that he did not formally acknowledge some slight faults, but he confesses most plainly, that they were all ungodly and transgressors of God’s law, and were worthy, not merely of a moderate chastisement, but of dreadful perdition, as they had thus provoked the wrath of God. (123)We acknowledge, Jehovah, our wickedness, — The iniquity of our fathers;For we have sinned against thee.Their wickedness, the same with the wickedness or iniquity of the fathers, was, that they sinned against God. — Ed.PETT, "Jeremiah 14:20-21‘We acknowledge, O YHWH, our wickedness,

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And the iniquity of our fathers,For we have sinned against you.Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake,Do not disgrace the throne of your glory,Remember, do not break your covenant with us.Jeremiah then confesses the people’s sins on their behalf, and calls on YHWH not to bring dishonour on Himself by not responding and by breaking His covenant. It was a similar basis to that on which Moses had previously prayed for the people centuries before when he had been concerned for YHWH’s honour and for His faithfulness to His promises made to Abraham, and then it had been effective (Exodus 32:11-13). But that had been in the beginning when the nation was still young, not when it had become hardened by sin as it was now.‘The throne of your glory’ probably refers to Jerusalem as containing the Dwellingplace of YHWH (compare Jeremiah 3:17; Ezekiel 43:7). His hope was still that YHWH would observe the covenant even in the face of the people’s disobedience. He still clung to the hope that it was not too late for God to show mercy. But he is to learn that it is now too late for that (Jeremiah 15:1).SIMEON, "Verse 20-21DISCOURSE: 1053HOW TO PLEAD WITH GODJeremiah 14:20-21. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.“LORD, teach us to pray,” was the request of the Apostles to their Lord and Master: and may Almighty God teach us to pray, whilst we consider the passage we have just read. Here is prayer indeed, such as it becomes us all to offer; and such as we shall surely offer, if ever we be duly sensible of our state before God. It was offered by the prophet in a season of great affliction. The whole land was in the utmost distress by reason of a drought, which put a total stop to vegetation, and destroyed all the fruits of the earth: and the prophet was assured, that that distress would speedily become extreme by means of the Chaldeans, who would invade the country, and desolate Jerusalem with the sword and famine. Under these circumstances, he was commanded not to pray for the people, since the measure of their iniquities was full [Note: ver. 10, 11.], But, like Moses of old [Note: Exodus

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32:10-11.], the prophet could not forbear: he first indeed warned the people of the judgments which God was about to inflict upon them [Note: ver. 15–18.], and then, in a most earnest and humble manner, pleaded with God in their behalf [Note: ver. 19–22.].We propose,I. To explain this prayer of the prophet—His acknowledgments are plain and easy to be understood—[He confesses, as he might well do, the sins of the whole nation; as well those contracted by their ancestors, as those which they had themselves committed: and he entreats God “not to abhor them” on account of their extreme wickedness. Now this expression, whilst it marked his sense of their vileness, had particular reference to what God himself had threatened by Moses, and to what he had promised also in the event of their humbling of themselves before him [Note: Leviticus 26:10-12, with 27–30; in both of which passages especial mention is made of famine as connected with God’s abhorrence.]. Hence, in the verse before the text, the prophet asks, “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion?”]His pleas require some explanation—[Being exceedingly earnest in his petitions, he offers the most powerful pleas that could possibly be urged: he entreats God to have mercy on them for his own sake, and to shew regard to the honour of his name, the glory of his administration, and the sanctity of his engagements.The first of these pleas, the honour of God name, is frequently urged in the Holy Scriptures [Note: Joshua 7:9. Psalms 79:9-10.], and is particularly acceptable to God; who “is jealous for his holy name [Note: Ezekiel 39:25.],” and delights to sanctify it” in the sight of an ungodly world [Note: Ezekiel 36:21-23.].The second of these pleas involves in it somewhat of greater difficulty. The words, “Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,” are generally interpreted as importing no more than this;” ‘Do not give up the city and temple into the hands of the enemy.’ The words will undoubtedly bear this sense: for both the city and the temple are represented as God’s throne [Note: Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 17:12. See this latter in particular.]; and he threatens to give them up into the hands of his enemies to be polluted and defiled by them [Note: Ezekiel 7:21-22.]. But, if we attend to the manner in which this petition is introduced, we shall see that it is, like that which precedes, and that which follows it, a plea; in which view its sense will be, ‘Thou art our King, who art engaged to provide for and protect thy people; and if thou give up the city and the temple into the hands of our enemies, as thou hast threatened, thy government will be dishonoured; and they will say, that thou art not able to afford them the succour which thou hast promised them.’ In this view the passage exactly

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accords with the plea urged by Moses [Note: Numbers 14:13-16.], and with that also which Jeremiah himself has urged more fully, and in the very same connexion, in the preceding part of this chapter [Note: ver. 7–9.].The last of these pleas reminds God of his covenant, which he cannot, and will not, break. This must doubtless refer to the covenant of grace, which God made with Abraham and with all his believing people to the end of time [Note: Galatians 3:16.]. The national covenant that was made with Moses was broken, and annulled; because all the conditions of it had been violated: but “the better covenant” which was made with God in Christ, is “ordered in all things and sure [Note: 2 Samuel 23:5.].” and by it “the promise is made sure to all the seed [Note: Romans 4:16.].” That covenant is “confirmed by the oath of Jehovah, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us [Note: Hebrews 6:17-18.].” This covenant God had engaged never to break [Note: Psalms 89:35.]; and therefore the prophet urged the inviolability of it as a motive with God to fulfil to his people, notwithstanding their unworthiness, all which of his own grace and mercy he had promised to them. In this view God himself had promised to regard his covenant [Note: Leviticus 26:41-42.]: and in this view the plea in our text may be considered as expressing what is more diffusely stated by the Prophet Isaiah [Note: Isaiah 63:15-19.].]Having stated what may be considered as the import of the prayer, we proceed,II. To point out some important lessons contained in it—We shall confine ourselves to two;1. The true nature of a sinner’s humiliation—[Nothing can give us a more just idea of humiliation than the prophet’s expression of it in our text. It necessarily implies an ingenuous confession of our sins, and of our desert on account of them. Think of the expression, “Abhor us not:” what a sense of extreme unworthiness does it convey! Yet is it not at all too strong: we are all, both by nature and practice, exceeding vile [Note: Job 40:4.]; and ought, like Job, to “abhor ourselves in dust and ashes [Note: Job 42:6.]”. Indeed this will be the state of every one that is truly penitent: he will look upon himself as “filthy and abominable [Note: Psalms 14:3.],” and will “lothe himself for all his iniquities, and for all his abominations [Note: Ezekiel 36:31.].” Every attempt to cloke or palliate our offences argues a want of humility, and operates to the exclusion of our souls from the Divine favour. We must be like convicted lepers in our own estimation, and justify our God in whatever sentence he may denounce against us [Note: Psalms 51:4.].]2. The proper grounds of a sinner’s encouragement—

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[Though we may justly acknowledge the work of Divine grace in us, and may give glory to God for whatever change he may have wrought in our hearts, yet we must not regard any thing of our own as a ground for our confidence in God: we must look for all our grounds of encouragement in God alone, even in his infinite perfections, and in the covenant which he has made with us in the Son of his love. When David was overwhelmed with trouble, we are told, “he encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” And this is what we are to do. In the prayer which the prophet offered, he drew all his pleasures from the honour and fidelity of his God. And what encouragement can we want, if we only contemplate God as he is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures? As a mighty Sovereign, his grace is his own, and he may grant it to whomsoever he will; yea, and his sovereignty will be the more displayed and glorified, in the communication of grace to the very chief of sinners, and in making “his grace to abound, where sin has most abounded.” The comfort to be derived from the contemplation of his love and mercy need not be stated; because that is obvious to the most inconsiderate mind. But even justice itself affords rich encouragement to a repenting sinner: for, has not an atonement been made for sin? and has not the Lord Jesus Christ discharged the debt of all those who trust in him? No doubt then, the justice of God, which has been satisfied by the ransom which his own Son has paid for us, will liberate us from our bondage, and restore us to all the privileges which his own Son has purchased for us. As he can be “a just God and yet a Saviour,” so he will be just to his own Son, in shewing mercy to us for Christ’s sake. Above all, his fidelity to his covenant-engagements leaves us no ground for fear; for never, since the foundation of the world, did one sinner perish who laid hold on his covenant, and rested in it as “all his salvation and all his desire.”]Let me in conclusion be permitted to ask,1. Have you ever pleaded with God in this manner—[Alas! if God were now to order those who have pleaded thus with him to be sealed on their foreheads, and all the rest to be smitten dead upon the spot [Note: Ezekiel 9:1-6.], what an awful spectacle would this place exhibit! Yet such a distinction will be made in the day of judgment. Beloved Brethren, consider this: and “judge yourselves, that ye be not judged of the Lord” — — — Shall it be said, that such pleadings are not necessary? What! were they judged necessary by the prophet for the averting of temporal judgments; and shall they not be for the averting of such as are eternal? Truly they are necessary for every child of man: nor can we hope to obtain mercy with God, unless we seek him thus with our whole hearts.]2. Have you ever pleaded thus with God in vain—[Never did God turn a deaf ear to one who sought him in this manner: “Never said he to any man, Seek ye my face in vain!” If any say that they have prayed, and yet not received an answer, we reply, that either they have never pleaded in this manner the perfections and the promises of God; or, an answer has been given, but has been overlooked. God cannot refuse an answer to a broken-hearted suppliant. He may

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answer in a way that we do not expect; or be may delay his answer with a view to our greater good: but as he has promised to grant such petitions as are offered up in faith, so will we affirm, in the presence of the whole universe, that “every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened [Note: Matthew 7:7-8.].”]

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.

BARNES, "Jer_14:21This verse is in the original very emphatic, and consists of a series of broken ejaculations: “Abhor not for thy name’s sake! Disgrace - lightly esteem” in Deu_32:15 -“not the throne of thy glory! Remember! Break not etc. with us!” The throne of Yahweh’s glory is Jerusalem.CLARKE, "Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory - The temple. Let not this

sacred place be profaned by impious and sacrilegious hands.Break not thy covenant - See Exo_24:7, Exo_24:8; Exo_19:5. They had already broken the covenant, and they wish God to fulfill his part. They ceased to be his people, for they abandoned themselves to idolatry; and yet they wished Jehovah to be their Lord; to defend, support, and fill them with all good things! But when the conditions of a covenant are broken by one of the contracting parties, the other party is not bound; and the covenant is necessarily annulled.

GILL, "Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake,.... Which was called upon them, and which they called upon; they deserved to be abhorred, they had done those things which might justly render them abominable, being what was abhorrent to him; and they deprecate this, not, for their own sake, who were unworthy of any favour, but for his own sake, for the sake of his honour and glory, which, as it is dear to the Lord, so to his people. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory; either Jerusalem, as Kimchi, which was

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the city of the great King, where he had his throne and palace, and which is called the throne of the Lord, Jer_3:17 or the house of the sanctuary, the temple, as Jarchi; see Jer_17:12, respect seems to be had to the mercy seat upon the ark, over which were the cherubim of glory, between which the Lord dwelt; and they pray, that though they were worthy of disgrace themselves, and to be taken and carried captive into a strange land, yet they entreat that the Lord would not disgrace his own glorious habitation, by suffering the city and the temple, and the ark in it, to be destroyed: remember; thy people, Zion, as before; or the promises made to them, the covenant, as follows: break not thy covenant with us: God never breaks his covenant, though man does; it may sometimes seem to be broken, when his church and people are in distress and affliction; but he will never break the covenant he has made, or suffer his faithfulness to fail; yet, though he does not, it is proper and necessary oftentimes to pray in this manner to God, for the encouragement of faith in him, and expectation of good things from him.

HENRY, "He deprecates God's displeasure, and by faith appeals to his honour and promise, Jer_14:21. His petition is, “Do not abhor us; though thou afflict us, do not abhor us; though thy hand by turned against us, let not thy heart be so, nor let thy mind be alienated from us.” They own God might justly abhor them, they had rendered themselves odious in his eyes; yet, when they pray, Do not abhor us, they mean, “Receive us into favour again. Let not thy soul loathe Zion, Jer_14:19. Let not our incense be an abomination.” They appeal, (1.) To the honour of God, the honour of his scriptures, by which he has made himself known - his word, which he has magnified above all his name: “Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, that the name of thine by which we are called and which we call upon.” The honour of his sanctuary is pleaded: “Lord, do not abhor us, for that will disgrace the throne of thy glory” (the temple, which is called a glorious high throne from the beginning, Jer_17:12); let not that which has been the joy of the whole earth be made a hissing and an astonishment. We deserve to have disgrace put upon us, but let it not be so as to reflect upon thyself; let not the desolations of the temple give occasion to the heathen to reproach him that used to be worshipped there, as if he could not, or would not, protect it, or as if the gods of the Chaldeans had been too hard for him. Note, Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched thence and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of his glory on earth; nor will he eclipse the glory of his throne by one providence without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in his honour at the long-run. (2.) To the promise of God; of this they are humbly bold to put him in mind: Remember thy covenant with us, and break not that covenant. Not that they had any distrust of his fidelity, or that they thought he needed to be put in mind of his promise to them, but what he had said he would plead with himself they take the liberty to plead with him. Then will I remember my covenant, Lev_26:42.

JAMISON, "us — “the throne of Thy glory” may be the object of “abhor not” (“reject not”); or “Zion” (Jer_14:19).

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throne of thy glory — Jerusalem, or, the temple, called God’s “footstool” and “habitation” (1Ch_28:2; Psa_132:5).thy covenant — (Psa_106:45; Dan_9:19).

PULPIT, "The throne of thy glory; i.e. the temple (Jer_17:12; Eze_43:7), or Jerusalem (Jer_3:17). It is the same conception where Jehovah is said to "dwell between" [or, ’sit upon’] "the cherubim" (Isa_37:16; Psa_80:1; Psa_99:1).

CALVIN, "Jeremiah goes on with the same prayer; and he made it from love, and also for the purpose of encouraging the faithful, who remained among the people, to seek forgiveness; for he undertakes here to represent the true Church, which was then very small. All indeed boasted that they were the children of God, and gloried in the covenant made with Abraham; but hardly one in a thousand called on God in truth and from the heart. The Prophet then represented the common feeling of a very small number; and yet he proceeded, as I have said, with his prayer.Hence he says, Reject not, overthrow not, the throne of thy glory; or the meaning of the two verbs may be the same, which seems to me more probable. (124) But the Prophet joined together two verbs, not so much for the sake of ornament as rhetoricians do, as for the purpose of expressing the intenseness of his concern and anxiety; for he saw that the kingdom of Judah was in extreme danger. He then did not in an ordinary way try to turn aside God’s vengeance, but he hastened as one to extinguish a fire; for the obtaining of pardon was difficult.He calls Jerusalem the throne of God’s glory, because God had chosen that city where he was to be worshipped, not that he was confined to the Temple, but because the memorial of his name was there, according to what had been usually said, especially by Moses. (Exodus 20:24) Nor was the ark a vain Symbol of his covenant, for God really dwelt there; for the presence of his power and grace was evidenced by the clearest proofs. But as this mode of speaking is often found in the Prophets, it was sufficient for Jeremiah briefly to notice the subject. God indeed, as it is well known, fins heaven and earth, but he gives symbols of his presence wherever he pleases; and as it was his will to be worshipped in the Temple, it is called iris throne, and it is elsewhere called his footstool; for the Scripture describes the same thing in various ways. The Temple is often called the rest of God, his dwelling, his sanctuary, the place of his habitation; it is also called his footstool,“We will worship at his footstool.” (Psalms 132:7)But these various forms are used for the same purpose, though they are apparently different; for where the Temple is called the habitation of God, his palace or his throne, the presence of his power is set forth, as though God dwelt as a friend among his worshippers; but when it is called his footstool, it is for the purpose of checking a superstition which might have crept in; for God raises the minds of the godly higher, lest they should think that his presence is confined to any place.

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We then perceive what the Scripture intends and what it means, whenever it calls Jerusalem or the Temple the throne or the house of God.But we nmst carefully notice what is here mentioned by the Prophet, For thy name’s sake We know that whenever the saints pray to be heard for the sake of God’s name, they cast aside every confidence in their own worthiness and righteousness. Whosoever then pleads God’s name, in order to obtain what he asks, renounces all other things, and fully confesses that he is unworthy to find God propitious to him; for this form of speaking necessarily implies a contrast. As then the Prophet flees to God’s name as his only refuge, there is included in the words a confession, such as we have before noticed, — that the Jews, inasmuch as they had acted wickedly towards God, were unworthy of any mercy; nor could they pacify him by any of their own satisfactions, nor have anytiling by which they could obtain his favor. This then is the meaning; and as this doctrine has been elsewhere more fully handled, it; seems to me sufficient briefly to shew the design of the Prophet.He calls it the throne of glory, to intimate that God’s name would be unknown and unnoticed, or even despised and exposed to reproaches, if he did not spare the people whom he had chosen. The genitive case is used in Hebrew, we know, instead of an adjective; and to enlarge on the subject is useless, as this is one of its primary elements. The Prophet then in calling the Temple the glorious throne of God, in which his majesty shone forth, in a manner reminds God himself not to expose his name to reproaches; for instantly the ungoldly, according to their evil dispositions, would vomit forth their blasphemies; and thus God’s name would be reproached.He afterwards adds, Remember, make not void, thy covenant with us Here also the Prophet strengthens his prayer by calling to mind the covenant: for it might have been said, that the Jews had nothing to do with the holy name of God, with his glory, or with his throne; and doubtless they were worthy of being wholly forsaken by God. As then they had divorced themselves from God, and were wholly destitute of all holiness, the Prophet here brings before God his covenant, as though he had said, “I have already prayed thee to regard thine own glory and to spare thine own throne, as thou hast favored the place with so much honor as to reign among us: now, though our impiety is so great that thou mayest justly cast us away yet thou didst not make a covenant with Mount Sion, or with the stones of the Temple, or with material things, but with us; render not void then this thy covenant.”We hence see that there is great emphasis in the words of the Prophet, when he implores God not to make void, or not to undo, the covenant, which he had made with the people. For though God would have continued true and faithful, had he obliterated the name of the whole people, yet it was necessary that his goodness should contend with their wickedness, his fidelity with their perfidiousness, inasmuch as the covenant of God did not depend on the people’s faithfulness or integrity. It was, as it may be said, a mutual stipulation; for God made a covenant with Abraham on this condition — that he should walk perfectly with him: this is

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indeed true; and the same stipulation was in force in the time of the Prophets. Yet at the same time Jeremiah assumed this principle — that the grace of God cannot be wholly obliterated; for he had chosen the race of Abraham, from whom the Redeemer was at length to be born. But Jeremiah intended to extend God’s grace still farther, according to what has been already said, and we shall again presently see the same thing. However this may be, he had a just reason for praying, “Undo not thy covenant with us.” But God had hidden means of accomplishing his purpose; for he did, according to the common apprehension of men, abolish the covenant by which the Jews thought him to be bound to them; and yet he remained true; for his truth shone forth at length from darkness, after the time of exile was completed. It now follows —Scorn not, for thy name’s sake, Abominate not, the throne of thy glory.The same form is adopted in what follows; two verbs are used, which have the same objective case, —Remember, break not, thy covenant with us.Which means, Remember thy covenant, and break it not, or annul it not. Blayney renders the first two lines thus, —Spurn us not for thy name’s sake.Dishonor not the throne of thy glory.But “us” is not in the original, nor do the versions give it, except the Vulgate; and dishonor has also been borrowed from that version, and is not the meaning of the verb. No doubt the two verbs refer to the throne. — Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:21 Do not abhor [us], for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.Ver. 21. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake.] This was to "continue instant in prayer." [Romans 12:12] This was to pray on, and not to faint. [Luke 18:1] If thy suit be not honest, never begin it; and if it be, never leave it.Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.] The temple, and the ark in it. The Romans held the extinction of the Vestal fire a sign of the destruction of their city, be the cause thereof what it will. (a) We may well think the same of the loss of God’s ordinances, which therefore we must deprecate, as here, with all our might; for as Bodin said well of obtaining, so likewise for retaining, religion, Non disputationibus sed rogationibus, &c., the business will be the better ejected by requests than disputes. Pray therefore for the peace of Jerusalem, yea, take no nay. Deus ipse qui nullis contra se viribus superari potest, precibus vincitur. (b) The invincible God is overcome by the power of prayer. There is a kind of omnipotence in it, saith Luther.

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Remember, break not thy covenant with us.] Lo, this is to be God’s faithful remembrancer, [Isaiah 62:6-7] suggesting unto him seasonable items.COKE, "Jeremiah 14:21. Do not abhor, &c.— Do not reject, for thy name's sake,—do not, &c. By the throne of God's glory, is here principally to be understood the temple; and Jeremiah beseeches God not to give up that sacred structure, with the holy city, to be profaned by infidelity; the place which he had chosen for his peculiar residence, and where he sat between the cherubims as upon a throne. See Lowth and Calmet.REFLECTIONS.—1st, The dearth here at large described, had been before intimated. It was the beginning of sorrows, and a call to them by repentance to prevent the greater judgments in store. We have here,1. A most affecting description, which God gives the prophet, of the distress which this visitation would bring upon the land. The voice of bitter mourning and the cry of anguish are heard throughout Judah and Jerusalem. The very gates languish, deserted by those who used to sit in them, and every face gathers blackness, pining with famine, and bowed to the ground with weakness and despair. The nobles, as well as people, are involved in the calamity: in vain their servants search for water; the heavens give no showers, the rivers are dry; they return with their vessels empty, and, with their masters, are overwhelmed with grief and shame at the disappointment. Parched up for want of rain, the earth cleaves in wide fissures, impenetrable to the plough, and leaves the husbandman confounded under the affliction. The very beasts suffer: the loving hind, now grown unnatural, abandons her young for want of nourishment to supply them; the wild asses on the mountains' top, scorched with the heat, pant for breath, and snuff the wind; and their eyes fail, famished, because there is no grass. Note; (1.) The common blessings of life are usually disregarded: yet, if God stays the bottles of heaven, we shall quickly find a drop of water more valuable than mountains of gold. (2.) They who take no shame for their sins justly provoke God to confound them with disappointments. (3.) Many mourn over their miseries, who shed no tears over the guilt which provokes them.2. The prophet addresses his importunate prayer to God in this their wretched situations and herein sets them an example to pray for themselves, and in what manner.[1.] He begins with deep and humbling acknowledgments of their guilt and sinfulness. O Lord, our iniquities testify against us; too great to be palliated or excused, too public to be denied; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee; in open violation of thy law, and in opposition to all the methods of thy grace; for which they stand convicted before God, and own the justice of his judgments; Note; True penitents are liberal in self-accusation, and never desire to cover their sins, but to confess them in all their malignity.[2.] He pleads earnestly for mercy, though he acknowledges that they deserve

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punishment: do thou it for thy name's sake, this being the sinner's prevailing plea; not his own deserts, but that God would glorify the riches of his grace and power in the salvation of the unworthy.[3.] He fills his mouth with arguments, to enforce his petition, drawn from their relation to God, and his glory concerned in their sufferings: O the hope of Israel, their only hope, who had in time past saved them, notwithstanding their provocations, and to whose endless mercy they had still recourse: the saviour thereof in time of trouble; who had often heard and answered their cries and prayers in the day of their distress, and in whom they trusted that he would yet deliver them: why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land? an unconcerned spectator of their miseries, as not interested in them; and as a way-faring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night? lodging at an inn, and departing without the least connexion formed with the people. Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? for such reflections would be cast upon him by the Heathen, if he suffered his own people to become a prey to their enemies, as if he wanted wisdom or power to deliver them. Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, no stranger among them, but had long dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem, and therefore he begs that it may not now be forsaken; and we are called by thy name; in profession, in outward covenant, the people of God; leave us not, for this is the consummation of all misery; to be deserted by him is to be irrecoverably lost and undone. Note; (1.) The most powerful arguments are those drawn from God's own glory. (2.) They who fly to God, as their only hope and Saviour in their deepest distress, shall not perish. (3.) If God seem to disregard our afflictions, we have only ourselves to blame for provoking him to leave us.2nd, If aught could have prevailed to obtain pardon or respite, it had been this intercession; but we find it in vain.1. God forbids him to pray for what he cannot grant; and he will not have the precious breath of prayer wasted. The measure of their iniquities was full, their sentence passed. They have loved to wander, have taken delight in sin, and, notwithstanding the repeated warnings, they have not refrained their feet, but continued to that hour obstinately impenitent; therefore the Lord doth not accept them: indeed it was impossible that he should: he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins, to punish them. In vain they fasted, prayed, sacrificed; their services were hypocritical, and, while their iniquities were not put away, so far from being acceptable, they were an abomination. Devoted, therefore, to destruction, he threatens, I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence, his three sore judgments. Note; (1.) While men continue determinately bent in the ways of sin, nothing can prevent their approaching ruin. (2.) They who bring down God's wrath on their heads by their iniquities, will not be able to cast their destruction on any fatal necessity which they were under, but owe it to their own choice; they have loved to wander. (3.) All formal duties and devotions are but hypocrisy and a provocation, when offered by an unawakened heart.

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2. The prophet, reluctant utterly to abandon his people, suggests that they had been deluded by the fair promises and confident assertions of the false prophets: a poor excuse, it must be owned, when they had before warning of their danger, and rules to judge them by; but it was the best apology that he could make for them, and therefore he pleads it in their behalf. Note; When a case is really bad, charity will teach us to make the best of it.3. God over-rules his plea. He disclaims all those prophets who pretended a commission from him which he never gave. Their divination is false, a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart, groundless, worthless, and delusive, as will quickly appear when the judgments of God shall begin with them; and that sword and famine, which they so confidently pronounced would never come, shall consume those lying prophets themselves. And those who have been deceived by them must perish with them by sword and famine, together with their wives, their sons and their daughters, and their corpses lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem; God being determined to bring the punishment of their wickedness in full measure upon them. Note; (1.) They who flatter to their ruin shall themselves receive the greater damnation. (2.) It will be no excuse for the deceived that they followed those who pretended a mission from God, when they have their Bibles, and some few faithful ministers who warn them of their delusions. (3.) When sinners suffer, they may look upon their wickedness as the cause of it. And when the deceived and deceiver lie down in hell together, they will prove but miserable comforters to each other.3rdly, The desolations of Judah affect the prophet's heart, and he is permitted to lament them; and, though discouraged from prayer, he does not esteem it an absolute prohibition; therefore once more he intercedes in behalf of this guilty people.1. He weeps, with ceaseless sorrow, over the dreadful calamities of his people, and God enjoins him to inform them of the cause of his tears, if peradventure it might affect their hearts with some apprehension of their impending miseries. Wherever he went, nothing but horrid scenes of devastation presented themselves to his view. Without, the Chaldean sword strewed the ground with the corpses of the slain; within the city famine raged, and every where the dying groans were heard of those who perished for want of food; and both the priest and prophet, those who had been the deceivers of the people, are sharers in their sufferings, dragged captives into a strange land, or wandering as vagabonds. But others understand this of the true prophets, such as Ezekiel and Daniel, who were carried into Babylon with the rest, and which would excite fresh grief, to see the righteous involved with the wicked. Note; Though we may not refuse pronouncing the sinner's doom, it should appear that we desire not the woeful day; and they, who will not hear our warnings, should see our weeping over their lost souls.2. Once more, he cannot keep silence: he pours out his prayer, if there be but the peradventure of hope.

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[1.] He humbly expostulates. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? that once-favoured family, that stock from which Shiloh comes; hath thy soul loathed Zion? that once loved name, where God delighted to dwell: why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? not merely with the rod of affliction, but with the sword of judgment, whose wound is incurable. Far other expectations had they entertained: we looked for peace; such was their fond hope, and so had their prophets flattered them; and there is no good; their affairs went from evil to worse: and for the time of healing, after the heavy chastisement which they had endured; and behold trouble, without prospect of its end or abatement. But will God be no more entreated?[2.] He confesses that they deserve all, and more than all that they have yet endured. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, that it is great and aggravated, and the iniquity of our fathers, whose example they imitated, and filled the measure of their iniquities; for we have sinned against thee, and justly provoked his wrath and indignation against them. They own their guilt, and cast themselves on his mercy; which,3. The prophet in their behalf, earnestly begs; Do not abhor us; if not embraced with the wonted tokens of divine favours, yet let us not be treated with utter detestation, and suffered to be intirely rooted out; for thy name's sake; for they have nothing but this to plead; his honour is concerned in their ruin; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory, that temple where his honour dwelt; and if this was laid desolate, the heathen would triumph as if their gods were greater than Jehovah, who sat between the cherubims. Remember, break not thy covenant with us. Indeed the covenant was broken on their part; but, on their penitent return, they might still plead his promise, and would prove his fidelity. Note; (1.) The most prevailing plea in prayer is to be drawn from God's glory, as interested in our salvation. (2.) It is a bitter grief to the pious soul, to see religion disgraced, and God blasphemed. (3.) We must plead God's promises, not as doubting his fidelity to his engagements, but for the encouragement of our own faith.4. He disclaims all dependence upon idols, and looks to God alone for relief under the present distress by reason of the drought. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? No. All these idols cannot produce one drop of dew. Or can the heavens give showers? No. All second causes can only act according to the will of the first Mover. Therefore they will look from these to Him who alone bindeth up the waters in the thick cloud. Art not thou he, O Lord our God? in whom our confidence is placed, and who alone canst open the windows of heaven. Therefore we will wait upon thee, till thou art pleased to answer our prayer, and cause the clouds to drop down from above: for thou hast made all these things, the heavens and earth, and all that in them is; even the rain hath a father, and the drops of dew are formed by him, and descend at his command. Note; (1.) We cannot place too little dependence on the creature, nor too much on the Creator. (2.) They who wait upon God must wait for him; and they who patiently continue so to do, will not be disappointed of their hope.

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ELLICOTT, " (21) Do not abhor us . . .—Even in the English, and yet more in the Hebrew, we seem to hear the broken accents, words and sobs intermingled, of the agony of the prayer. “Abhor us not . . . disgrace not . . . remember, break not.” The prophet can make no plea of extenuation, but he can appeal to the character of God, and urge, with a bold anthropomorphism, that mercy is truer to that character than rigorous justice, and that His covenant with Israel pledges Him to that mercy.The throne of thy glory.—This is, of course, the Temple (see Jeremiah 17:12). Shall that become a bye-word of reproach, scorned (so the word means) as a fool is scorned?BI, "Do not abhor us.Marks of a people in danger of the Divine abhorrenceI. The leading indications of a people exposed to that alarming condition which the prophet here so pathetically deprecates.

1. Unfruitfulness under the means of religious and moral improvement (Luk_13:6). When the recipients of so many favours, instead of being fruitful, bring forth no good fruit at all, or fruit that is positively bad; when, instead of acting suitably to such high advantages, they shew that they are insensible of them; when, instead of being devout, they are impious; when, instead of standing in awe of God, they profane His holy name; when, instead of regarding His ordinances, they despise them; when, instead of being humble, meek, and merciful, they are proud, overbearing, and injurious; and, instead of ascribing to the bounteous Giver of all good, the glory that is due to Him for His liberality towards them, by a holy, reverential, and submissive deportment, they disregard His authority:—most assuredly, if there is any justice in the Divine nature, and any discernment in the Divine administration, such a people are “nigh unto cursing,” and are rapidly advancing towards that state which is deprecated in the text.2. A public and general contempt of religion. All things go well so long as God and Him service are reverenced; because there is a firmness, an energy, and a greatness in every effort put forth for the public weal, which, through the blessing of God, can scarcely fail to render it effectual. But, on the other hand, when God is despised; when His existence and authority are treated as merely ideal; when no influence is produced upon human agency by the greatness and purity of His character, or the rectitude and perfection of His counsels; when it acknowledges no higher principle than self-interest, or the gratification of the inferior appetites of our nature—then all things run into confusion. In confirmation of this, we have the remarkable testimony even of the heathen Polybius, one of the most judicious historians of ancient Rome. “When the Romans,” says he, “left off consulting the gods, when they began to disregard the institutions of religion, or to laugh at things sacred, then fell the glory of the empire. The wisdom of the senator forsook him, and the heart of the soldier melted at the face of the foe. The State had no friend, because every man was a friend only to himself, and the gods forsook them because they were despised.”3. Levity and insensibility under the Divine judgments. How natural to conclude, when a child continues thoughtless, perverse, and obstinate, under the frowns of an indulgent parent, that he is fast approaching to destruction: and how just, as well as

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natural, is the conclusion; since the parent having tried all means, but in vain, to reclaim him, seems in a measure compelled to throw him off, and since the child himself seems bent on renouncing parental protection, were it even forced upon him. And no less just and natural is it to draw a similar conclusion in the case of nations, when they despise the chastenings of Omnipotence. To these He has recourse, only when all other means have proved ineffectual. If, then, when He strikes they feel it not, and instead of being brought to repentance, obstinately persist in their folly and inconsideration, what is to be looked for but their perdition?II. How suitable the language and temper of the prayer in the text is to us, “O Lord, do not abhor us for Thy name’s sake.”

1. It is expressive of that temper of mind, which is most suited to the guilt which we have contracted, and the dangers to which we are exposed.(1) It supposes, that as children, who have long resisted the kind intentions of our heavenly Father, trifled with His goodness, and abused His grace, we see ourselves about to be cast off by an awful exertion of His justice; and that, deeply alarmed at our situation, sensible of our unworthiness, and that the very fate which we dread, is what we actually merit, we run to Him at the very moment, and cry, O Lord, abhor us not; cast us not off forever. We deserve it, but stay Thy hand. Foolish, and rebellious, and perverse as we have been, we cannot bear the frowns of Thine indignation, or to be finally excluded from Thy favour.(2) It implies the utmost earnestness, and the very feeling of present and immediate repentance. It supposes that the individuals who use it are actually lying low in the dust, under the sense of immediate danger, and calling out for immediate relief. And most assuredly there is no room for procrastinating.

2. It also peculiarly becomes us, because it is enforced by the only argument fit to be urged by guilty creatures, and the only argument which we can urge with effect.(1) Review all the circumstances in your case. Single out what you conceive to be the most alleviating, and the most favourable—and then say, is there one of these which you can use as an argument why a pure and holy God should not abhor you?(2) But beware of using this language in a cold and formal manner, and without those distressing apprehensions of danger, and those bitter feelings of repentance, which Jeremiah so evidently cherished when he uttered it. This, instead of appeasing the Divine wrath which has gone forth against us, will rather provoke it more than ever; and instead of averting the Divine judgments, will rather accelerate their accomplishment. (J. Somerville, D. D.)

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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.

BARNES, "Jer_14:22None of the idols of the Gentiles can put an end to this present distress.Art not thou he, O Lord our God! - Rather, “art thou not Yahweh our God?”Thou hast made all these things - i. e., the heaven with its showers.

CLARKE, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles - Probably the dearth was now coming, as there had been a long want of rain. It was the prerogative of the true God to give rain and send showers at the prayers of his people.

Therefore we will wait upon thee - If thou do not undertake for us, we must be utterly ruined.

GILL, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?.... The blessing wanted; none of the idols of the Gentiles, called vanities, because it was a vain thing to apply to them, or hope for anything from them, none of these could give a shower of rain; though the name of one of their idols was Jupiter Imbrius (u), or Pluvius, the god of rain, yet he could not make nor give a single drop; as Baal, in the times of Ahab, when there was a drought, could not. Or can the heavens give showers? from whence they descend, and which are the second causes of rain; even these could not of themselves, and much less Heathen deities. Art not thou he, O Lord our God? the everlasting and unchangeable He, or I AM, our covenant God and Father, thou, and thou only, canst give rain; this is the peculiar of the great God himself; see Act_14:17. Therefore we will wait upon thee; for rain, by prayer and supplication, and hope for it, and wait the Lord's own time to give it: for thou hast made all these things; the rain and its showers, who have no other

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father than the Lord, Job_38:28, also the heavens from whence it descends, and the earth on which it falls, are made by him, who restrains and gives it at pleasure. (u) Pausanias makes mention of an image of Jupiter Pluvius, and of altars erected to him in various places; Attica, sive l. 1. p. 60. Corinthiaca, sive l. 2. p. 119. Boeotica, sive l. 9. p. 602. and in India, as Apollonius Tyanaeus relates, in Vit. Philostrat. l. 3. c. 2. in fine, was a tub, which in time of drought they opened; from whence, as they pretended, clouds came forth and watered all the country. Near Rome was a stone called Lapis Manalis, which being brought into the city, was said to cause rain. A like fable is told of water being in the forehead of Jupiter Lycaeus, which being shook by an oaken branch in the hand of a priest, gathered clouds, and produced plentiful showers of rain when wanted; but these, with others, are all fables and lies. See Alex. ab Alex Genial. Dier. l. 4. c. 16.

HENRY, " He professes a dependence upon God for the mercy of rain, which they were now in want of, Jer_14:22. If they have forfeited their interest in him as their God in covenant, yet they will not let go their hold on him as the God of nature. (1.) They will never make application to the idols of the heathen, for that would be foolish and fruitless: Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? No; in a time of great drought in Israel, Baal, though all Israel presented their prayers to him in the days of Ahab, could not relieve them; it was that God only who answered by fire that could answer by water too. (2.) They will not terminate their regards in second causes, nor expect supply from nature only: Can the heavens give showers? No, not without orders from the God of heaven; for it is he that has the key of the clouds, that opens the bottles of heaven and waters the earth from his chambers. But, (3.) All their expectation therefore is from him and their confidence in him: “Art not thou he, O Lord our God!from whom we may expect succour and to whom we must apply? Art thou not he that causest rain and givest showers? For thou hast made all these things; thou gavest them being, and therefore thou givest them law and hast them all at thy command; thou madest that moisture in nature which is in a constant circulation to serve the intentions of Providence, and thou directest it, and makest what use thou pleasest of it; therefore we will wait upon thee, and upon thee only; we will ask of the Lord rain, Zec_10:1. We will trust in him to give it to us in due time, and be willing to tarry his time; it is fit that we should, and it will not be in vain to do so.” Note, The sovereignty of God should engage, and his all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on him and our expectations from him at all times.

JAMISON, "vanities — idols (Deu_32:21).rain — (Zec_10:1, Zec_10:2).heavens — namely, of themselves without God (Mat_5:45; Act_14:17); they are not the First Cause, and ought not to be deified, as they were by the heathen. The disjunctive “or” favors Calvin’s explanation: “Not even the heavens themselves can give rain, much less can the idol vanities.”art not thou he — namely, who canst give rain?

PULPIT, "None of the vanities, or false gods (Jer_3:17), of the heathen can deliver us in this our strait (want of rain). "Rainmakers" is still a common name of soothsayers among savage nations. Thou alone art God, and our God; or, in Jeremiah’s phrase (not,

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Art not thou he, etc.? but) Art thou not Jehovah our God?and the ground of the appeal follows, Jehovah is the Maker of all these things; i.e. all the heavenly phenomena, especially the clouds and the rain.

CALVIN, "In order to conciliate the favor of God, Jeremiah says here, that with him is the only remedy in extremities; and it is the same as though by avowing despair he wished to turn God to mercy; as if he had said, “What will become of us, except thou shewest thyself propitious? for if thou remainest implacable, the Gentiles have their gods from whom they seek safety; but with us it is a fixed principle to hope for and to seek salvation from thee alone.” Now this argument must have been of great weight; not that God had need of being reminded, but he allows a familiar dealing with himself. For if we wish stoically to dispute, even our prayers are superfluous; for why do we pray God to help us? Does he not himself see what we want? Is he not ready enough to bring us help? But these are delirious things, wholly contrary to the true and genuine feeling of piety. As then we flee to God, whenever necessity urges us, so also we remind him, like a son who unburdens all his feelings in the bosom of his father. Thus in prayer the faithful reason and expostulate with God, and bring forward all those things by which he may be pacified towards them; in short, they deal with him after the manner of men, as though they would persuade him concerning that which yet has been decreed before the creation of the world: but as the eternal counsel of God is hid from us, we ought in this respect to act wisely and according to the measure of our faith.However this may be, the Prophet, according to the common practice of the godly, seeks to conciliate the favor of God by this argument, — that unless God dealt mercifully with his people and in his paternal kindness forgave them, it was all over with them, as though he had said, “O Lord, thou alone art he, from whom we can hope for salvation; if now we are repudiated by thee, there remains for us no refuge: wilt thou send thy people to the idols and the inventions of the heathens? but we have looked for thee alone; thou then seest that there remains for us no hope of salvation but from thy mercy.”But the Prophet here testifies in the name of the faithful, that when extremities oppress the miserable, they cannot obtain any help from the idols of the heathens. Can they give rain, he says? He states here a part for the whole; for he means that the idols of the heathens have no power whatever. Hence to give rain is to be taken for everything necessary to sustain mankind, either to bring help, or to supply the necessaries of life, or to bestow abundance of blessings. Paul also, in speaking of God’s power, refers to rain, (Acts 14:17) and Isaiah often uses this kind of speaking, (Isaiah 5:6)He then says, Are there any among the vanities of the heathens? etc. He here condemns and reproaches all superstitions; for he does not call them the gods of the heathens, though this word is often used by the prophets, but the vanities of the

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heathens. Are there any, he says, who can cause it to rain? and can the heavens give rain? I may give a more free rendering, “Can they from heaven give rain?” for it seems not to me so suitable to apply this to the heavens. If, however, the common rendering is more approved, let every one have his own judgment; but if the heavens are spoken of, the argument is from the less to the greater; “Not even the heavens give rain; how then can vanities? how can the devices of men do this, which only proceed from their foolish brains? Can they give rain? For doubtless there is some implanted power in the heavens? but man, were he to devise for himself a thousand gods, cannot yet form one drop of rain, and cause it to come down from heaven. Since, then, the heavens do not of themselves give rain, but at the command of God, how can the idols of the heathens and their vain inventions send rain for us from heaven?” The object of the Prophet is now sufficiently evident, which was to shew, that, if God rejected the people, and resolved to punish their sins with the utmost rigor, and in an implacable manner, their salvation was hopeless; for it was not their purpose to flee to idols.Art not thou, he says, Jehovah himself, or alone? Art not thou Jehovah himself, and our God? (125) He first mentions the name Jehovah, by which is meant the eternal majesty and power of God; and then he joins another sentence, — that he was their God, to remind him of his covenant. Then it is added, We have looked to thee, for thou hast made all these thingsHere many, in my judgment, are mistaken, for they apply “these things” to the heavens and the earth, and to all the elements, as though the Prophet declared that God was the creator of the world, and that therefore all things are under his control. But I have no doubt but that he speaks of those punishments which God had already inflicted on the people, and had resolved soon to inflict; for he does not speak here of God’s power, whiich shines forth in the workmanship of the world; but he says, “We have looked to thee, for thou hast made all these things;” that is, from thee alone salvation will come to us: for thou who hast inflicted the wound canst alone heal, according to what is said in another place,“God kills and brings to life, he leads to the grave and restores.”(1 Samuel 2:6)It is then the same as though the Prophet had said, “We, O Lord, do now flee to thy mercy, for no one but thou alone can help us, as thou art he who has punished our sins. Since then thou hast been our Judge, thou also canst alone deliver us now from our calamities; and no one can resist thee, since the highest power is thine alone. Let all the gods of the heathens unite, yea, all the elements and all creatures, for the purpose of serving us, yet what will all that they can do avail us? As then thou hast made all these things, that is, as these things have not happened to us by chance, but are the effects of thy just vengeance — as thou hast been judge in inflicting these punishments, be now our Physician and Father; as thou hast heavily afflicted us, so now bring comfort and heal those evils which we justly suffer, and indeed through thy judgment.” We now understand the real meaning of the Prophet.

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And hence may be learned a useful doctrine, — that there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of God’s wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from him; but, on the contrary, a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by God’s hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to him who wounds to heal, and to him who kins to restore to life. Now follows —22.Are there any among the vanities of the nations who bring rain? And do the heavens give showers? Art thou not he who givest them, Jehova, our God? So we will look to thee, For thou makest all these.To introduce the word “can,” borrowed from the Vulgate, into the first questions, obscures the passage. “All these” refer, as it appears, to the rain and showers. The perfect tense in Hebrew often includes the past and the present, “For thou hast made and makest all these,” etc. So Gataker regards the meaning. The Syriac has “For thou makest,” etc. Calvin as far as I can find, stands alone in the sense he attaches to these words. If we take the verb strictly in the past tense, the meaning commonly given is, that God made the heavens, rain, and showers, and that, as he has made them, they are still under his control. But the other meaning is more suitable to the passage, — that God makes the rain and the showers. — Ed.TRAPP, "Jeremiah 14:22 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].Ver. 22. Are there among the vanities of the Gentiles,] i.e., The heathen idols wickedly worshipped by the Jews.That can cause rain?] Pluit, ningit: supple Deus. These impersonals imply that the ancient Romans looked upon rain, snow, &c., as God’s work. Sure it is that they come by a divine decree. [Job 28:26] Not Jupiter, ןלגסיןע - whatever the poets fable -nor the heavens themselves, without the divine concurrence, can give rain; but it is God Almighty who both prepareth it [Psalms 147:8] and withholdeth it at his pleasure. [Amos 4:7] The second causes do but serve the divine providence in these common occurrences.Therefore we will wait upon thee.] For seasonable showers in this our great necessity. We will wait, or, if thou see fit, want of our will, so that thy will may be done; for that is best.For thou hast made all these things.] Both the constellations, and rain or drought caused thereby.ELLICOTT, " (22) Vanities.—sc., as in Jeremiah 10:8, the idols of the heathen,

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powerless and perishable.Are there any . . . that can cause rain?—The question is asked with a special reference to the drought which had called forth the prophet’s utterance (Jeremiah 14:1). Israel remembers at last that it is Jehovah alone who gives the rain from heaven and the fruitful seasons, and turns to Him in patient waiting for His gifts. The words contain an implied appeal to the history of Elijah (1 Kings 18:41) and that of Joel 2:23).PETT, "Jeremiah 14:22‘Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain?Or can the heavens give showers?Are not you he, O YHWH our God?Therefore we will wait for you,For you have made all these things.The drought is still in mind as Jeremiah asserts on behalf of the people that he at least recognises the futility of appealing to false gods. He recognises that there are none among the gods of the nations who can bring showers when called on. They cannot cause it to rain. Nor can the heavens (the sun, moon and stars). It is only YHWH Who can do such things because He is the Creator. Because His is ‘HE’, the One Who is. That is why he and the people need to ‘wait for Him’ (pray in expectancy and hope), because He made the rain and ‘all these things’.Outwardly the people would appear to ‘wait for Him’, but it would only be by using ritual in order to persuade Him to act differently. There would be no thought of obedient response to the covenant.PULPIT, "None of the vanities, or false gods (Jeremiah 3:17), of the heathen can deliver us in this our strait (want of rain). "Rainmakers" is still a common name of soothsayers among savage nations. Thou alone art God, and our God; or, in Jeremiah's phrase (not, Art not thou he, etc.? but) Art thou not Jehovah our God? and the ground of the appeal follows, Jehovah is the Maker of all these things; i.e. all the heavenly phenomena, especially the clouds and the rain.

BI, "Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?Impotence of idolsRemember it was a time of dearth. The question turned upon the presence of grass; there was no grass, and therefore the hind calved in the field and forsook its own

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offspring, that it might abate its own hunger, seeking grass in some far-away place. Natural instincts were subdued and overcome, and the helpless offspring was left in helplessness, that the poor dying mother, hunger smitten, might find a mouthful of green herbage somewhere. And the ground was dust; the ploughmen were ashamed, they resorted to that last sign of Oriental desperation and grief, to cover their heads, because there was no rain, no grass; and now the prophet asks, “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles than can cause rain?” What can the idols do? If they can give rain, let them give it now. Can the heavens themselves give showers—the blue heavens that look so kind—can they of themselves, and as it were by their own motion, pour a baptism of water upon the earth? No. This is the act of the living God, the providence of the redeeming Father, the miracle of love. Thus we are driven in various ways to pray. You never know what a man is religiously, until he has been well tried, hungry a long time, and had no water to drink, until his tongue is as a burning sting in his mouth, until it hardens like metal, and if he can then move his lips you may find the coward trying to pray. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Rainmakers among the heathenIn Burmah the inhabitants have a novel form of the sport that elsewhere is commonly called a tug-of-war. In the Burmese game there is a rain party and a drought party, who pull one against the other, the victory of either party being considered to have immediate results as regards the weather. The drought party, however, obtain few victories, for the kind of weather they represent is commonly not so much desired as rain. In the face, therefore, of a strong public opinion the rain party are nearly always allowed to win, the palpable “roping,” in the popular notion, being generally followed by a fertilising downpour.Prayer is the most potent means of obtaining rain, as shown in the case of Elijah..

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