Shared Word Translation
Jeremiah 14
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts:
Judah mourns,
and her gates languish;
they sit in darkness on the ground,
and the cry of Jerusalem rises.
Her nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns
and find no water.
They return with their vessels empty;
they are ashamed and humiliated;
they cover their heads.
Because the ground is dismayed,
for there has been no rain in the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
they cover their heads.
Even the doe in the field gives birth
and abandons her young,
because there is no grass.
The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
they pant for air like jackals.
Their eyes fail,
because there is no vegetation.
Though our iniquities testify against us,
LORD, act for the sake of your name.
For our turnings away are many;
we have sinned against you.
Hope of Israel,
its savior in a time of distress,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who turns aside to spend the night?
Why should you be like one stunned,
like a warrior unable to save?
Yet you are among us, LORD,
and your name is called over us.
Do not leave us.
Thus says the LORD concerning this people: They have so loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account.
And the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the good of this people.
Though they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, by sword, famine, and plague I will bring them to an end.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Look—the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword, and famine will not come upon you; for I will give you true peace in this place.’”
And the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them, commanded them, or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, divination, emptiness, and the deceit of their own hearts.
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I have not sent them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine will not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets will come to their end.
And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, with no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out upon them their own evil.”
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
has been shattered with a great shattering,
with a very grievous wound.
If I go out into the field,
there are those slain by the sword;
if I enter the city,
there are those made sick by famine.
For prophet and priest alike wander through a land
they do not know.
Have you utterly rejected Judah?
Does your whole being loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us,
leaving no healing for us?
We wait for peace, but there is no good;
for a time of healing,
but look—there is terror.
We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD,
the iniquity of our ancestors;
for we have sinned against you.
Do not despise us, for the sake of your name;
do not dishonor the throne of your glory.
Remember; do not break
your covenant with us.
Are there any among the worthless idols of the nations
who can bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are you not the one, the LORD our God?
We wait for you,
for you have made all these things.