Jeremiah 14

¹ The word of Yahweh that was addressed to Jeremiah on the occasion of the drought.

² ‘Judah is in mourning, her towns are disconsolate, they sink to the ground; a cry goes up from Jerusalem.

³ The nobles send the lesser men for water, they come to the cisterns, and find no water, and return with their pitchers empty.

⁴ The ground refuses its yield, for the country has had no rain; in dismay the ploughmen cover their heads.[*a]

⁵ Even the doe abandons her new-born fawn in open country, for there is no grass;

⁶ the wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals: their eyes grow dim for lack of pasture.’

⁷ If our crimes are witness against us, then, Yahweh, for your name’s sake act! Yes, our apostasies have been many, we have sinned against you!

⁸ Yahweh, hope of Israel, its saviour in time of distress, why are you like a stranger in this land, like a traveller who stays only for a night?

⁹ Why are you like someone bemused, like a warrior who has no power to rescue? Yet, Yahweh, you are in our midst, we are called by your name. Do not desert us!

¹⁰ Yahweh says this regarding this people, ‘They take such pleasure in wandering, they cannot control their feet!’ But Yahweh accepts them no longer; now he recalls their crime and will punish their sins.

¹¹ Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not intercede for this people or their welfare.

¹² If they fast, I will not listen to their plea; if they offer holocaust and oblation, I will not accept them. Rather, I mean to exterminate them by sword, famine and pestilence.’

¹³ ‘Ah, Lord Yahweh,’ I answered ‘here are the prophets telling them, “You will not see the sword, famine will not touch you; I promise you unbroken peace in this place”.’

¹⁴ Then Yahweh said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I have not sent them, I gave them no orders, I never spoke to them. Delusive visions, hollow predictions, daydreams of their own, that is what they prophesy to you.

¹⁵ Therefore, Yahweh says this: The prophets who prophesy in my name when I have not sent them, and tell you there will be no sword or famine in this land, these same prophets are doomed to perish by sword and famine.

¹⁶ And as for the people to whom they prophesy, they will be tossed into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and the sword, with not a soul to bury them: neither them nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. I will pour down on them their own wickedness.

¹⁷ ‘Say this word to them, “Tears flood my eyes night and day, unceasingly, since a crushing blow falls on the daughter of my people, a most grievous injury.

¹⁸ If I go into the countryside, there lie men killed by the sword; if I go into the city, I see people sick with hunger; even prophets and priests plough the land: they are at their wit’s end.”‘

¹⁹ ‘Have you rejected Judah altogether? Does your very soul revolt at Zion? Why have you struck us down without hope of cure? We were hoping for peace – no good came of it! For the moment of cure – nothing but terror!

²⁰ Yahweh, we do confess our wickedness and our fathers’ guilt: we have indeed sinned against you.

²¹ For your name’s sake do not reject us, do not dishonour the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.

²² Can any of the pagan Nothings make it rain? Can the heavens produce showers? No, it is you, Yahweh. O our God, you are our hope, since it is you who do all this.’