The great drought
1 The word of Yahweh concerning drought came to Jeremiah:
2 Judah mourns, the cities languish,
desolate, they sink to the ground.
From Jerusalem a cry is heard.
3 The rich sent the poor for water,
but they found none at the cisterns,
and returned with empty vessels.
4 The soil is cracked
because there is no rain in the land;
the farmers are dismayed
and have covered their heads like mourners.
5 Even the doe in the fields
abandons her newborn calf
because there is no pasture.
6 The wild donkeys stand on the heights
sniffing the air like jackals
and languish as they find not even a thistle!
7 Even if our faults accuse us,
you Yahweh, work for the glory of your Name.
In truth, many have been our rebellions
and great is our sin against you.
8 O Yahweh! Hope of Israel,
you who save in the time of distress,
why are you as a stranger in this land,
or like a traveler who stays only a night?
9 Why should you be as if bewildered,
like a warrior unable to save?
But you are in our midst Yahweh,
and on us your Name has been invoked.
Do not abandon us!
Do not intercede for this people
10 This is what Yahweh says about this peo ple, “They like to wander here and there, not stopping for a moment, so Yah weh takes no pleasure in them; he re members their wickedness and will punish their sins.”
11 And Yahweh said, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people!
12 If they fast I will not listen to their cry; if they offer me burnt offerings and oblations, I will not accept them. Instead I am going to make an end of them with sword, famine and plague.”
13 And I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! You know what the prophets are saying to them: ‘You will not see the sword nor suffer famine for I will give you true peace in this place.’”
14 But Yahweh said, “These proph ets have proclaimed untruths in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. False visions, worthless divinations and delusions of their own imagination – that is what they proph esy.”
15 And Yahweh added, “These pro phets whom I did not send and who pro phesy in my name, saying that the sword and famine will not touch this land – these same prophets will perish by the sword and famine.
16 As for the people listening to them, their corpses will be thrown into the streets of Jeru salem. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or daughters, when they die of famine and by the sword. For I shall make their own malice fall upon them.
17 This you will say to them: Let my eyes shed tears night and day without ceasing! For with a great wound has the virgin daughter of my people been wounded, a most grievous wound.
18 If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword. If I enter the city I see the ravages of famine. For the prophet and the priest did not understand what was happening in the land.”
19 Have you then rejected Judah forever? Do you abhor Zion? Why have you wounded us and left us with no hope of recovery?
We hoped for salvation but received nothing good; we waited for healing, but terror came!
20 Yahweh, we know our wickedness and that of our ancestors, and the times we have sinned against you.
21 For your name’s sake do not des pise us; do not dishonor the throne of your glory. Remember us. Do not break your covenant with us!
22 Among the worthless idols of the nations, are there any who can bring rain, or make the skies send showers?
Only in you, Yahweh our God, do we hope, for it is you who do all this.
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Comments Jeremiah, Chapter 14
• 14.1 The passage beginning here concludes in 15:4. Jeremiah appears before Yahweh as the Jews used to do in the Temple to publicly confess the sins of the people, in the hope that the priests would give them an encouraging answer on behalf of the God who forgives. Jeremiah stands in soli darity with his people and with their sins. But God does not want to listen to him.
Do not abandon us, O Yahweh! Jeremiah is distressed over his people’s situation. Maybe God can not forgive; maybe he cannot save? Here the hu man being is confronted by the mystery of God. Jeremiah does not get an answer: God does not answer Job either; and Jesus does not get an answer in his agony in the garden of Gethsemane.
You know what the prophets are saying: you will not see the sword (13). There are plenty of false prophets reassuring a society based on false principles. Compared with them, Jere miah appears weak and bitter, as the one who does not give Yah weh’s answer. A true pro phet is not accepted by his own people whereas those who provide opium for the people are praised.