Jeremiah 14

1The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.

2Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they grow dark on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

3Their nobles send their servants for water; they come to the cisterns and find no water. They return with their containers empty; they are ashamed and humiliated, and they cover their heads.

4Because the ground is dismayed, since there has been no rain in the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

5For even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons her young, because there is no grass.

6And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no grass.

7Though our iniquities testify against us, O Yahweh, act for your name’s sake; for our apostasies are many; against you we have sinned.

8O Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of distress, why should you be like a foreigner in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to spend the night?

9Why should you be like a stunned man, like a warrior who cannot save? Yet you are in our midst, O Yahweh, and your name is called over us; do not forsake us.

10Thus says Yahweh concerning this people: Thus they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

11Then Yahweh said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.”

12Though they fast, I do not hear their cry; and though they offer up burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them. Rather, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I am consuming them.

13Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, look, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword, and famine will not come upon you, for I will give you true peace in this place.’”

14And Yahweh said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them, nor did I speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, emptiness, and the deceit of their own heart.”

15Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land’: by sword and by famine those prophets will be consumed.

16And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, with no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. And I will pour out on them their evil.

17And you shall say to them this word: ‘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 breaking, with a very grievous wound.’

18If I go out into the field, look—those slain by the sword! And if I enter the city, look—those sick with famine! For both prophet and priest wander through the land and do not know what to do.

19Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We hoped for peace, but there was no good, and for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

20We acknowledge, O Yahweh, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you.

21Do not spurn us for the sake of your name; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember; do not break your covenant with us.

22Are there any among the idols of the nations that bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not you, O Yahweh our God? And we wait for you, for you have made all these things.