Jeremiah 14

Revised Geneva Translation

14 The Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

² “Judah has mourned, and its gates are desolate. They have been brought to heaviness, to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

³ “And their nobles have sent their inferiors to the water, who came to the wells and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads.

⁴ “For the ground was destroyed because there was no rain on the Earth. The plowmen were ashamed, covering their heads.

⁵ “Yea, the deer also calved in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.

⁶ “And the wild donkeys stood in the high places and drew in their wind like dragons. Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”

⁷ O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, deal with us according to Your Name. For our rebellions are many. We sinned against You.

⁸ O, You Hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble! Why are You as a stranger in the land, as one who passes through, to tarry for a night?

⁹ Why are You as a man astonished, and as a strong man who cannot help? Yet You, O LORD, are in the midst of us. And Your Name has called upon us. Do not forsake us.

¹⁰ Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus have they delighted in wandering. They have not refrained their feet.” Therefore, the LORD has no delight in them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins.

¹¹ Then said the LORD to me, “You shall not pray to do this people good.

¹² “When 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.”

¹³ Then I answered, “Ah, LORD God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall famine come upon you. But I will give you assured peace in this place.’”

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My Name. I have not sent them, nor did I Command them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, and divination, and vanity, and deceitfulness of their own heart.”

¹⁵ Therefore thus says the LORD: “Concerning the prophets that prophesy in My Name whom I have not sent, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land,’ by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

¹⁶ “And the people to whom these prophets prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be no one to bury them and their wives and their sons and their daughters. For I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷ “Therefore, you shall say this Word to them, ‘Let my eyes drop down tears night and day without ceasing. For the virgin daughter of my people is destroyed with a great destruction, with a very grievous plague.

¹⁸ ‘For if I go into the field, behold the slain with the sword. And if I enter into the city, also behold those who are sick from hunger. Moreover, the Prophet and the priest go wandering into a land that they do not know.’”

¹⁹ Have You utterly rejected Judah? Or has Your Soul abhorred Zion? Why have You stricken us, so that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace and there is no good, and for the time of health and behold trouble.

²⁰ We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against You.

²¹ Do not abhor. For Your Name’s sake, do not cast down the throne of Your Glory. Remember. Do not break Your Covenant with us.

²² Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can give rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait upon You. For You have made all these things.