Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Jeremiah 14

Jeremiah 14 sets Judah’s pleas for help against God’s declared judgment and exposes the prophets who promise peace without his word.

Judah’s cisterns are empty, the ground is cracked, and wild animals struggle to survive a drought. YHWH speaks to Jeremiah amid prayers voiced on behalf of the people, confessing sin and pleading for God to remain with them. God declares judgment and tells Jeremiah to stop praying for their good. Prophets who promise peace have spoken lies in his name. The chapter closes with another plea for the covenant to be remembered and an acknowledgment that rain comes from God.

guilt and confessionfear for the futurewaiting
Read
1This is the LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2“Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
4Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads.
5Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass.
6The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation.
7Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, LORD; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.
8You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?
9Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, LORD, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don’t leave us.
10The LORD says to this people: “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.”
11The LORD said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good.
12When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
13Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”
14Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.
15Therefore the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine.
16The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.
17“You shall say 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 is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.
18If I go out into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”
19Have 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 came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
20We acknowledge, LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
21Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us.
22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, the LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 14:14God disowns the prophets’ reassuring messages, exposing a claim to divine authority that has no word from him behind it.
Jeremiah 14:9The plea rests on God’s presence among his people while voicing their distress at his apparent failure to save.
Jeremiah 14:22The closing prayer acknowledges God alone as the source of rain, leaving Judah waiting without a promised reprieve.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy shares the link between covenant disobedience and withheld rain, while Joel also portrays drought through ruined fields and suffering animals. Ezekiel shares the condemnation of prophets who promise false peace, and Lamentations shares grief over Jerusalem’s devastation by famine and sword.

Jeremiah 14's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What tension do you notice between Judah’s confessions and God’s statement that the people love to wander?

Write on this

How does the closing prayer read after God has rejected the prophets’ promises of peace?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Jeremiah 14

What is the drought in Jeremiah 14?

The chapter describes a drought in Judah: cisterns have no water, the soil is cracked, and animals lack grass. No date or king is named here. The drought forms the setting for prayers of confession and for God’s declaration that Judah’s persistent wandering will bring further judgment.

Why does God tell Jeremiah not to pray for the people?

God explains that the people have loved to wander and have refused to restrain themselves. His refusal to hear prayer, fasting, or offerings belongs to this declared judgment against Judah. The command is addressed to Jeremiah in that setting; it does not establish a general ban on praying for people who sin.

Who are the false prophets in Jeremiah 14?

They are unnamed prophets who claim to speak in God’s name and assure the people that sword and famine will not come. God says he neither sent nor spoke to them. Their messages come from deception, and the very disasters they deny will consume them and the people who hear them.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Jeremiah 14. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Jeremiah · 52 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
What the Bible says about guilt →What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about patience →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).