Jeremiah 14:1-22
14 This is the word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts:+
2 Judah mourns,+ and its gates have faded away.
They sink to the ground dejected,And a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
3 And their masters send their servants* for water.
They go to the water holes* and find no water.
They return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and disappointed,And they cover their heads.
4 Because the ground is cracked,For there is no rain on the land,+The farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.
5 Even the doe in the field forsakes her newbornBecause there is no grass.
6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills.
They pant for air like jackals;Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation.+
7 Although our own errors testify against us,O Jehovah, act for the sake of your name.+
For our acts of unfaithfulness are many,+And it is against you that we have sinned.
8 O hope of Israel, his Savior+ in times of distress,Why are you like a stranger in the land,Like a traveler who stops only to spend the night?
9 Why are you like a man who is stunned,Like a mighty man who cannot save?
For you are among us, O Jehovah,+And your name has been called on us.+
Do not abandon us.
10 This is what Jehovah says concerning this people: “They love to wander about;+ they have not restrained their feet.+ So Jehovah finds no pleasure in them.+ Now he will remember their error and call them to account for their sins.”+
11 Then Jehovah said to me: “Do not pray for good to come to this people.+
12 When they fast, I do not listen to their entreaties,+ and when they offer whole burnt offerings and grain offerings, I take no pleasure in them,+ for by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence,* I will do away with them.”+
13 At this I said: “Alas, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Here the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword, and famine will not come upon you, but I will give you true peace in this place.’”+
14 Jehovah then said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name.+ I have not sent them or commanded them or spoken to them.+ A lying vision and a worthless divination and the deceit of their own heart is what they are prophesying to you.+
15 Therefore this is what Jehovah says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name, though I did not send them, and who say that no sword or famine will occur in this land: ‘By sword and by famine those prophets will perish.+
16 And the people to whom they are prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, with no one to bury them+—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters—for I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.’+
17 “You must speak this word to them,‘Let my eyes stream with tears night and day, let them not cease,+For the virgin daughter of my people has been completely crushed and broken,+With an extremely severe wound.
18 If I go out into the field and look,I see those slain by the sword!+
And if I come into the city,I see the diseases from the famine!+
For both the prophet and the priest have gone around in a land that they do not know.’”+
19 Have you completely rejected Judah, or have you* abhorred Zion?+
Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us?+
There was a hope for peace, but nothing good came,For a time of healing, but there is terror!+
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O Jehovah,And the error of our forefathers,For we have sinned against you.+
21 For the sake of your name, do not reject us;+Do not despise your glorious throne.
Remember, and do not break your covenant with us.+
22 Can any of the worthless idols of the nations give rain,Or can even the heavens send showers of rain on their own?
Are you not the only One, O Jehovah our God?+
And we hope in you,For you alone have done all these things.
Footnotes
^ Or “their small ones.”
^ Or “the ditches; the cisterns.”
^ Or “disease.”
^ Or “has your soul.”