14:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
14:2 Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
14:3 Their 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.
14:4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads.
14:5 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no grass.
14:6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
14:7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
14:8 You 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?
14:9 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; don’t leave us.
14:10 Thus says Yahweh to this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
14:11 Yahweh said to me, Don’t pray for this people for their good.
14:12 When 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, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
14:13 Then I said, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14:14 Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I didn’t send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.
14:15 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I didn’t send them, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
14:16 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them—them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.
14:17 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.
14:18 If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and 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.
14:19 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 came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
14:20 We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
14:21 Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, don’t break your covenant with us.
14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
15:1 Then Yahweh said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
15:2 It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go forth? Then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
15:3 I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
15:4 I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
15:5 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?
15:6 You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
15:7 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn’t return from their ways.
15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
15:9 She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and their residue will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.
15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet everyone of them curses me.
15:11 Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
15:12 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?
15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
15:14 I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.
15:15 Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; don’t take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
15:17 I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.
15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?
15:19 Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.
15:20 I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.
15:21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.