Jeremiah 14 - Introduction

Jeremiah 14:1 to Jeremiah 15:9. Accumulation of calamities

Jehovah rejects the prophet's intercession

Du. considers that this section, as made up of very various elements, cannot have been put together by Jeremiah in its present form, and that it thus bears evident traces of modification by later hands. Stade omits Jeremiah 14:7-10, but they contain nothing that Jeremiah may not have uttered. The latter part of Jeremiah 14:10 ("therefore the Lord," etc.) comes direct from Hosea 8:13. Schmidt rejects Jeremiah 14:7 as being in the spirit of a later age, that of the second Isaiah, and not in harmony with Jeremiah 14:10-16; Jeremiah 15:1-4 a. Co., following Hitzig, thinks that two distinct utterances are here blended, viz. one as to the drought, Jeremiah 14:2-10; Jeremiah 14:19 to Jeremiah 15:1, the other threatening sword, famine, and pestilence, Jeremiah 14:12-18; Jeremiah 15:2-9. We cannot with any confidence assign a date.

The section may be subdivided as follows. (i) Jeremiah 14:1. Graphic description of the suffering caused to high and low, city and country, man and beast, through lack of sustenance and water. (ii) Jeremiah 14:7. The prophet, in the face of this visitation, confesses the people's sin, and bases his intercessory appeal on the intimate relations between Jehovah and His people. The Lord refuses to condone their offences. (iii) Jeremiah 14:11. Intercession is again rejected. Calamities shall be sent as retribution. Jeremiah pleads that the people have been misled by promises of peace from the false prophets. The Lord in reply disowns those prophets, and declares that they and those misled by them shall be involved in a common destruction. Jeremiah is bidden to pronounce a dirge over those without and those within the cities, the former put to the sword, the latter perishing from want. (iv) Jeremiah 14:19 to Jeremiah 15:1. The people plead their cause and Jehovah's covenant with them, confess their sin, and acknowledge Jehovah as supreme over the powers of nature. The Lord declares that not the most powerful intercessors of the past could now alter His decision, and bids Judah depart from His presence. (v) Jeremiah 14:2. When they ask, Whither? the reply is, To the various forms of death allotted to each. Their fate, consequent on their sins, shall form a solemn warning to the nations. Jerusalem shall be neglected, unwept, despised. The long-suffering of her God is at last exhausted. The inhabitants shall be dispersed as chaff. Husbands, sons, mothers shall be slain. Parents of many sons shall faint with grief, the land lies empty.