The drought and God’s message
14
📚✭The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:2 📚“Judah mourns, and its gates languish;
they mourn from the ground,
and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
3 📚And their nobles have sent
their servants for water;
they came to the cisterns and found
no water;
they returned with their vessels empty;
they were ashamed and dismayed,
and covered their heads,
4 📚because the ground was parched,
for there was no rain on the earth.
The plowmen were disappointed;
they covered their heads.
5 📚Yes, the deer also gave birth
in the field, and left it,
because there was no grass.
6 📚And the wild donkeys stood on the
high places;
they sniffed the wind like jackals;
their eyes failed, because there was
no grass”.
7 📚✭O LORD, though our evil deeds
testify against us,
act for your name’s sake;
for our backslidings are many.
We have sinned against you.
8 📚O the hope of Israel, its saviour in time
of trouble, why should you be like
a stranger✭ in the land,
and like a traveller who turns aside
to stay for a night?
9 📚✭Why should you be like a man astonished,
like a mighty man who cannot save?
For you, O LORD, are in our midst,
and we are called by your name.
Do not leave us.
10 📚✭Thus says the LORD to this people:
“Thus they have loved to wander.
They have not restrained their feet;
therefore the LORD does not accept them.
He will now remember their wickedness,
and punish their sins”.
11 📚✭Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people for their good. 12 📚✭When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they sacrifice burnt offerings and offerings, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by sword and by famine and by plague”.
13 📚✭Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! See, the prophets say to them, ‘You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’ ”
14 📚✭Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I did not send them✭, and I have not given commands to them or spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision✭ and divination, and a worthless thing✭, and the deceit of their heart✭. 15 📚✭Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them and who say, ‘There will be no sword and famine in this land’; by sword and famine those prophets will come to an end. 16 📚✭And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and will have no one to bury them, neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters; for I will pour their wickedness on them. 17 📚✭“Therefore you shall speak 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 has been
broken with a great stroke,
with a very grievous blow.
18 📚If I go out into the field, then, see,
those slain by the sword!
And if I enter the city, then, see,
those who are sick from the famine!
Yes, both the prophet and the priest
go away into a land that they
do not know✭.’ ”
19 📚✭Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Has your soul loathed Zion?
Why have you struck us,
and there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace,
but no good has come;
and for the time of healing,
but see trouble.
20 📚✭We acknowledge, O LORD,
our wickedness, and
the guilt of our fathers,
for we have sinned against you.
21 📚✭Do not abhor us,
for your name’s sake do not disgrace
your glorious throne.
Remember, do not break your covenant
with us.
22 📚✭Are there any among
the worthless idols of the Gentiles
that can cause rain?
Or can the skies give showers?
Are you not the one,
O LORD our God?
Therefore we will wait for you,
for you have made all these things.