The big picture
Drought gives Jeremiah 14 its physical setting: empty vessels return from dry pits, soil cracks, farmers cover their heads, and animals fail in a landscape without grass. The Book of Jeremiah then places substantial confession beside an equally substantial refusal. The people admit sin and appeal to God’s name and presence, but God points to feet that still love to wander and rejects fasting and offerings as substitutes for changed direction. Jeremiah raises another difficulty: competing prophets are promising assured peace. God denies having sent, commanded, or spoken to them, and announces that the sword and famine they deny will overtake both speakers and hearers. The chapter closes with tears, slain bodies, famine, renewed confession, covenant appeal, and the question of who can send rain. The people say they will wait on the LORD, but the text reports no end to the drought or judgment.
In this chapter
- A Drought That Crosses Every Boundary Jeremiah 14:1-6
Jeremiah 14 lets the drought explain itself through objects and bodies.
- A Prayer That Names the Right Things Jeremiah 14:7-12
The prayer sounds serious because it is serious.
- Peace Promised Without a Commission Jeremiah 14:13-16
Jeremiah points to a genuine complication: other prophets are speaking too, and they promise the opposite of what he is announcing.
- The Appeal Returns Before an Answer Arrives Jeremiah 14:17-22
Tears become part of the message again.
Scripture beside the summary
Jeremiah · King James Version · 22Jeremiah 14:1-6
A Drought That Crosses Every Boundary
Jeremiah 14 lets the drought explain itself through objects and bodies. Nobles can send servants to the pits, but authority cannot manufacture water, so the vessels return empty. Plowmen face ground split open by lack of rain, and both groups cover their heads in the same gesture of humiliation. The Book of Jeremiah then moves beyond human society. A hind abandons her newborn because there is no grass; wild asses strain in high places and their eyes fail in the same exhausted landscape. These are not decorative animal details. They show ordinary patterns of care and survival breaking down across the land. The heading names the dearth, but the particulars make the shortage physical: cracked soil, empty containers, covered heads, failed farming, abandoned young, and hungry animals. Before prayer or interpretation begins, the chapter makes the drought a condition no rank, profession, or instinct can escape.
Deep dive
Jeremiah makes the drought visible through failed journeys. The nobles send others to the water, but the vessels come back empty. The returning messengers cover their heads; the ploughmen do the same when the ground will no longer support their work. The repeated gesture brings the household that commands labour and the people who perform it under the same humiliation. An order can send someone to a cistern. It cannot put water in it.
The animals extend the scene beyond human institutions. The hind abandons her newborn because there is no grass, and the wild asses exhaust themselves in a landscape without nourishment. These are not decorative additions to the city's suffering. They show ordinary patterns of care and survival breaking down across the land.
The chapter heading names the "dearth", and the following particulars establish drought rather than merely a general shortage. Covered heads, cracked ground, empty containers, and failing eyes do the explanatory work. Before any argument about the disaster begins, the passage lets its material consequences accumulate.
Words to trace: ashamed, covered, grass, ground, heads, asses
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 14:1
The Hebrew for “dearth” is plural, droughts, which may mean a run of failed rainy seasons rather than one bad year. The heading is unusual in naming a subject rather than a date or a place, as though the drought were already famous enough to need no introduction.
- Jeremiah 14:2
The gates were where a town’s people met, traded and judged, so languishing gates are a city whose public life has stopped. “Black” is qadar, the dark of mourning clothes and unwashed faces, and the mourners sit on the ground. The cry that “is gone up” is the outcry of the distressed.
- Jeremiah 14:3
“Little ones” are the lesser folk, servants or youths sent on the errand. The “pits” are cisterns cut into rock to hold winter rain. Covering the head is the gesture David makes climbing the Mount of Olives in flight from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:30), grief too deep for the face to be shown.
- Jeremiah 14:4
“Chapt” is the 1611 spelling of chapped, cracked open. The Hebrew verb is chattah, to be shattered or dismayed, the word God uses in 1:17 when he tells Jeremiah “be not dismayed”. The ground itself is described as losing its nerve.
- Jeremiah 14:5
The hind, the female deer, was proverbial for gentle care of her young; Job 39:1–4 marvels at her calving. The Hebrew opens with “even”: even the hind, of all creatures, gives birth and walks away, because milk needs grass and there is none.
- Jeremiah 14:6
“Dragons” translates tannim, jackals, the animals that howl in ruins (9:11). In 2:24 the wild ass “snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure”, sniffing for a mate; the same creature now gulps air on a bare height, and the book lets the two pictures sit a dozen chapters apart.
Jeremiah 14:1-6
King James Version1The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
2Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3And 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.
4Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6And 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.
Jeremiah 14:7-12
A Prayer That Names the Right Things
The prayer sounds serious because it is serious. It acknowledges iniquity, many backslidings, and sin, then appeals to God’s name and presence. The Book of Jeremiah does not dismiss those words as though no confession occurred. What it exposes is the gap between confession and direction. The people ask why the hope of Israel seems like a stranger passing through or a mighty man unable to save, yet God answers that their feet still love to wander. The problem is not lack of divine power but continued movement away from the relationship being appealed to. That explains why fasting and offerings do not secure the requested reversal. Religious acts cannot serve as substitutes for return. Jeremiah is again told not to intercede for their good, and sword, famine, and pestilence stand where the expected answer to prayer would normally be. The refusal is specific to this unresolved breach, not a general denial of prayer.
Deep dive
This prayer is not a simple denial of guilt. It acknowledges repeated backsliding and appeals for action on account of God's name. Its disturbing comparisons arise from the apparent absence of rescue: the hope of Israel seems like a stranger staying briefly, or a mighty man unable to save. The people simultaneously confess that God is among them and describe events that make that presence difficult to recognize.
The reply refuses the premise that the difficulty lies in divine inability. It points instead to feet that have not been restrained from wandering. Verbal confession has not yet become a changed direction. That distinction explains why the chapter can place a serious-sounding prayer beside a refusal to accept it without pretending that no confession was spoken.
The prohibition of Jeremiah's intercession sharpens the refusal. Fasting, burnt offerings, and grain offerings do not secure the requested reversal. Sword, famine, and pestilence replace the expected answer. The passage is describing this people's unresolved covenant breach at this moment, not supplying a general rule that prayer or worship is inherently worthless.
Words to trace: LORD, accept, people, shouldest, aside, astonied
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 14:7
“Testify” is courtroom language: the people’s own sins take the stand against them. So the plea abandons any claim of merit and rests on God’s name alone. “Backslidings” is meshuvah, one of the book’s own words for turning away, heard already in 2:19 and 3:22.
- Jeremiah 14:8
“Hope of Israel” is miqweh, which can also mean a pool, as in “the gathering together of the waters” in Genesis 1:10. The book draws the two senses together in 17:13, calling the LORD Israel’s hope and the fountain of living waters. In a drought the title carries its own irony.
- Jeremiah 14:9
“Astonied” is the older form of astonished, stunned into helplessness; the Hebrew word occurs only here. “We are called by thy name” is literally “thy name is called over us”, the phrase of ownership used of the temple in 7:10 and 7:11.
- Jeremiah 14:10
God answers in the third person, speaking about the people rather than to them. “Wander” is nua, the restless word of Cain’s sentence, a fugitive and a vagabond (Genesis 4:12). The last clause is found word for word in Hosea 8:13: “now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins”.
- Jeremiah 14:11
The prohibition is now given for the third time (7:16, 11:14). It is narrow in wording: not a ban on prayer as such, but on praying “for their good”, asking that the disaster be turned aside while nothing has changed.
- Jeremiah 14:12
The “oblation” is the minchah, a grain offering. Sword, famine and pestilence here stand together as a set of three, a triad the Book of Jeremiah will repeat more than a dozen times through the siege chapters and into chapter 44.
Jeremiah 14:7-12
King James Version7O 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.
8O 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?
9Why 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.
10Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
11Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Jeremiah 14:13-16
Peace Promised Without a Commission
Jeremiah points to a genuine complication: other prophets are speaking too, and they promise the opposite of what he is announcing. Their message is not cautious optimism. They say there will be no sword, no famine, and instead “assured peace in this place.” The Book of Jeremiah therefore makes the dispute one of authority, not personality. God denies their commission in three directions: he did not send them, command them, or speak to them. Their visions, divination, emptiness, and deceit come from another source. The judgment then mirrors the content of the false message. Prophets who deny sword and famine will be consumed by sword and famine. Their hearers do not escape merely because they trusted religious speakers. Families lie unburied in Jerusalem’s streets. The chapter will not let false teachers absorb all responsibility while the public is treated as completely detached from the message it welcomed.
Deep dive
Jeremiah's objection introduces the competing voices inside Judah. The people are not hearing only his warning and then openly choosing danger. Other prophets speak in God's name and promise assured peace. Their claim directly contradicts the sword and famine now announced. This makes the question one of authorized speech, not merely optimism against pessimism.
The reply dismantles their commission in three parts: God did not send them, command them, or speak to them. Their message instead comes from false vision, divination, and the deceit of their own hearts. The prophetic label remains on their activity, but its asserted source is denied. Confidence and religious vocabulary have supplied an appearance of authority that the message itself cannot establish.
The judgment fits the disputed content. Prophets who exclude sword and famine will die by sword and famine. Their hearers are not sheltered by having trusted them; the streets fill with the unburied dead, including their families. The chapter does not distribute responsibility in a way that excuses the public or lets the misleading teachers disappear into the crowd.
Words to trace: famine, prophesy, prophets, sword, LORD, name
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 14:13
“Ah, Lord GOD” is the same cry Jeremiah raised at his call (1:6) and in 4:10. “Assured peace” is literally “peace of truth”, shalom emet. The other prophets use the very word for truth to guarantee a promise the next verse calls a lie.
- Jeremiah 14:14
“Divination” is qesem, one of the practices Deuteronomy 18:10 forbids outright. A “thing of nought” is elil, a word elsewhere used for idols, worthless things. Four products are listed: a lying vision, divination, emptiness and the deceit of their own heart.
- Jeremiah 14:15
The sentence turns the false promise back on the ones who made it, word for word: they said sword and famine shall not be, and by sword and famine they will end. Hananiah in chapter 28 is the book’s named instance, and his death within the year is recorded in 28:17.
- Jeremiah 14:16
An unburied body was the worst disgrace the ancient world knew. Wives, sons and daughters are listed one by one, so no member of the household is left out. “Pour their wickedness upon them” pictures the sin itself as liquid, in a chapter where no water falls.
Jeremiah 14:13-16
King James Version13Then 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.
14Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
15Therefore 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.
16And 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.
Jeremiah 14:17-22
The Appeal Returns Before an Answer Arrives
Tears become part of the message again. Field and city offer different forms of the same disaster: sword outside, famine within, and priest and prophet moving through a condition they do not master. The Book of Jeremiah then returns to communal confession, this time naming present wickedness and the iniquity of the fathers together. The appeal reaches for the strongest covenant language available: God’s name, the throne of his glory, and the plea not to break covenant. These are substantial words, which makes the lack of immediate resolution more searching. Finally the chapter circles back to the rain. Idols cannot make it fall, and the heavens are not independent givers. The community identifies the LORD as maker and says it will wait on him. Yet Jeremiah 14 ends there, with waiting rather than reported relief. The drought has not been declared over, and the next chapter will answer the plea with renewed refusal.
Deep dive
The command to speak tears gives the people's wound a voice. Jeremiah describes the slain outside and those consumed by famine within the city. Neither destination provides relief from the same national disaster. The movements of priest and prophet in verse 18 are obscure: the wording can suggest entry into an unknown land or movement without understanding. It does not offer evidence that either office has found a way out.
The renewed prayer again contains confession, now joining present wickedness with the iniquity of the fathers. It appeals to God's name, the throne of his glory, and the covenant. These are substantial grounds within Judah's own relationship with God; their presence makes the unanswered appeal more searching, not less.
The final appeal turns from institutional language to the rain itself. Idols cannot send it, and the heavens are not independent benefactors. The community identifies the Lord as the maker on whom its waiting depends. Yet chapter 14 ends with the plea still open. The continuation in chapter 15 begins with refusal, so the prayer's closing confidence must not be mistaken for a reported end to the drought or the judgment.
Words to trace: healing, LORD, abhor, acknowledge, blow, both
Verse-by-verse path
- Jeremiah 14:17
“Breach” is shever, a breaking, the word of 6:14 and 8:11 where the false prophets heal the hurt of the daughter of my people “slightly”. The wound they bandaged over has now opened fully. The lament is introduced as a word to speak, so the tears belong to the message.
- Jeremiah 14:18
Field and city were the two places a besieged or starving people could go, and both are closed. “Go about” is sachar, a verb used of merchants travelling to trade; some read it as priest and prophet peddling their office in a land they do not understand.
- Jeremiah 14:19
The people’s complaint repeats 8:15 almost exactly: they looked for peace and found no good, for a time of healing and found terror. Jeremiah had put those words in their mouths six chapters before. “Lothed” means to feel revulsion, an unexpected verb to ask of God.
- Jeremiah 14:20
“We acknowledge” is literally “we know”. The confession joins the present generation to its fathers, the idea the book will later dispute through the proverb of the sour grapes and the children’s teeth (31:29–30).
- Jeremiah 14:21
“The throne of thy glory” is Jerusalem, and in particular the temple; 17:12 calls the sanctuary “a glorious high throne from the beginning”. “Break not thy covenant” uses parar, the verb that 11:10 used for Judah breaking it. The people ask God not to do what they have done.
- Jeremiah 14:22
“Vanities” is hevel, breath, the book’s scornful word for idols (10:8, 10:15). Baal was worshipped as the storm god who sent rain, as Elijah’s contest in 1 Kings 18 had tested. “Wait” is qavah, the root of the “hope” of verse 8, so the prayer ends where it began.
Jeremiah 14:17-22
King James Version17Therefore 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.
18If 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.
19Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
20We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
21Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
22Are 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.
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Identify the historical crisis, covenant failure, warning, and promised hope.
- Distinguish the prophet’s immediate audience from later biblical connections.
- Do not turn present-day headlines into confident fulfillment claims without textual evidence.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Jeremiah 14?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Jeremiah 14 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: Jeremiah 14 develops its own movement around LORD, famine, sword, people, prophesy?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
