Chapter 15
1The LORD said to me: "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, I would have no regard for this people; send them away from my presence, and let them go.
2When they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD: Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity.'
3I will appoint over them four kinds of doom, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6You have rejected me, declares the LORD; you keep going backward; therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you; I am weary of relenting.
7I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I have bereaved and destroyed my people; they did not turn from their ways.
8Their widows have become more numerous than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; suddenly I have made anguish and terror fall upon her.
9She who bore seven has grown faint; her soul has departed; her sun has set while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and disgraced; and the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares the LORD."
10Woe to me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to all the land! I have not lent, nor have others lent to me, yet everyone curses me.
11The LORD said: "Have I not set you free for good? Have I not intervened for you in time of evil and in time of distress with the enemy?
12Can iron break iron from the north, and bronze?
13Your wealth and your treasures I will give for spoil without price, because of all your sins, throughout all your territory.
14I will make your enemies pass through a land you do not know, for a fire is kindled in my anger; it will burn against you."
15"You know, O LORD; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors; in your forbearance do not take me away; know that for your sake I bear reproach.
16Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
17I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?"
19Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me; if you utter what is precious rather than what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth; they shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.
20And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, declares the LORD.
21I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless."
14
Jeremiah
Famine, False Prophets, and Divine Judgment
Jeremiah 14:1-15:21
Key words in this passage
Cross-references
Study notes
The drought exposes a deeper crisis in which communal confession and appeals to the divine name and covenant meet outright refusal. Even Moses and Samuel cannot turn the verdict once wandering has become habitual. False assurances of peace collapse under the claim that they originate in the prophets' own hearts rather than any commission. The same exchange places the messenger under scrutiny, requiring him to speak what is precious if he is to continue as the LORD's mouth while the people face appointed dooms. God remains the only source of rain and the maker of all things, yet he will not be manipulated by appeals to his name when the people have rejected him and kept going backward.
What is Famine, False Prophets, and Divine Judgment about?
A drought has settled over Judah. Fields lie parched, cisterns stand empty, and even the wild animals abandon their young for lack of grass. Jeremiah receives the word of the LORD concerning this crisis, and the description moves quickly from the suffering of the land to the prayers of the people. Nobles and farmers alike cover their heads in shame. The community then appeals directly to the LORD as the Hope of Israel, confessing sin yet pleading that God act for the sake of his name and covenant. The answer that follows is blunt: the LORD will not accept their offerings or hear their cries. False prophets have promised lasting peace, but the LORD identifies their words as lies spoken without any commission. Jeremiah himself is told not to pray for the welfare of the people. These verses therefore open a sustained exchange between prophet and God in which the drought becomes the occasion for confronting both the people's persistent wandering and the false assurances they have received.
Where does this passage sit in Jeremiah?
Jeremiah 14 opens by naming the drought as the occasion for the LORD’s word, yet the surrounding chapters already trace a longer refusal to heed earlier warnings. Chapter 13 ends with a call to give glory to the LORD before darkness falls and with an image of Jerusalem’s skirts lifted in shame; the drought then supplies the concrete affliction that makes that shame visible in empty cisterns and abandoned fawns. The people’s prayer in 14:7–9 reuses the language of covenant appeal that appeared in chapter 11, but the LORD’s reply in 14:10–12 repeats the prohibition first issued after the temple sermon: intercession is now forbidden outright.
The exchange escalates when Jeremiah raises the problem of the prophets in 14:13. Their claim of lasting peace directly contradicts the sword-and-famine oracles that have accumulated since chapter 4, and the LORD’s verdict in 14:14–16 exposes their words as self-generated lies. This verdict prepares for the longer treatment of false prophecy later in the book, yet it functions here as the immediate reason the community’s fasts and offerings are rejected.
The lament that follows in 14:17–15:9 widens the scope from land to city streets and from prophet to mothers bereaved at noon, echoing the winnowing imagery of 13:24 while adding the new note that even Moses and Samuel would not avail. Jeremiah’s personal complaint in 15:10 then shifts the focus inward, linking the public crisis to the prophet’s own isolation already voiced in 12:1–4. God’s answer in 15:19–21 restores the language of fortified wall first given at the call in chapter 1, showing that the same divine presence that sustains the messenger now stands against the people who have rejected both message and messenger.
How is the passage structured?
The section opens with a terse heading that locates the word of the LORD at the drought (14:1). A chain of images follows without interruption: gates languish, nobles return empty from cisterns, farmers cover their heads, and even the doe abandons her young (14:2-6). Only after this sustained picture of distress does a communal voice appear, addressing the LORD directly as Hope of Israel and pleading for action on the ground of the divine name (14:7-9).
The reply shifts abruptly to third-person indictment: the people have loved to wander, so the LORD will not accept them (14:10). A private command to Jeremiah follows at once: do not pray for this people (14:11). The prohibition is then expanded by the refusal of fasts and offerings and by the announcement of sword, famine, and pestilence (14:12).
Jeremiah interrupts with a report of what the prophets are saying (14:13). The LORD counters by exposing their words as lies spoken without commission and by sentencing both the prophets and their hearers to the very disasters they denied (14:14-16). A fresh imperative then directs Jeremiah to speak a lament over the virgin daughter of the people (14:17-18).
The people resume their address, now questioning whether the LORD has utterly rejected Judah and appealing once more to the covenant (14:19-22). The answer escalates: even Moses and Samuel would not avail; the people are sent away to four appointed dooms (15:1-4). Further oracles of unrelenting judgment occupy 15:5-9.
At this point the prophet himself becomes the speaker, voicing personal anguish over his birth and isolation (15:10). The LORD responds with a promise of protection, yet the exchange ends with Jeremiah’s renewed complaint about an unceasing wound and a final summons to return and stand before the LORD (15:15-21).
What is the historical background?
Droughts in Judah struck at the heart of daily survival. The region relied on winter rains to fill cisterns carved into rock and to sustain grain fields and pasture. When those rains failed, nobles dispatched servants with empty jars, farmers watched their soil crack, and even wild animals such as does and donkeys abandoned their young on bare heights. The text records these effects without exaggeration; they match what archaeological surveys of cisterns and terraced fields reveal about the narrow margin between adequate rain and famine.
Covering the head with a cloth or mantle was a recognized gesture of public shame or grief. Both the nobles and the farmers adopt it, showing that the crisis crossed social lines. The same gesture appears in other accounts of national distress, indicating a shared cultural language rather than an invention of the moment.
Prophetic speech carried weight only when understood as commissioned by the LORD. People expected prophets to intercede in times of calamity, as Moses and Samuel had done generations earlier. The prohibition against Jeremiah praying for the people therefore ran against an established expectation. False prophets, by contrast, offered oracles of peace without any such commission; the text labels their words as visions drawn from their own hearts and from common divination practices.
The reference to Manasseh in 15:4 points to remembered royal policies that had included the installation of foreign altars inside Jerusalem itself. Later generations associated those decisions with the deepening of covenant breach. The LORD’s declaration that even Moses and Samuel could not turn the present judgment underscores how far the accumulated guilt had moved beyond ordinary intercession.
Winnowing with a fork at the city gates belonged to ordinary harvest routine; the image of scattering people in the same location therefore drew on a familiar agricultural scene to depict irreversible dispersal. These details together locate the dialogue between prophet and God inside the concrete world of Judah’s agriculture, mourning customs, and prophetic institutions.
What does this passage teach about God?
The LORD rejects the community's appeal even while acknowledging its form. The people confess that their iniquities testify against them and that their backslidings are many, yet they still address him as Hope of Israel and Savior in time of trouble. They insist that he remains in their midst and that they are called by his name, asking him not to forsake them for the sake of that name and the covenant. The LORD answers that their wandering has become habitual and that he will therefore remember their iniquity and punish their sins, refusing both their fasts and their offerings.
This stance extends even to the greatest intercessors. Moses and Samuel, figures known for turning aside earlier judgments, would find no hearing on behalf of this people. The LORD directs Jeremiah not to pray for their welfare and announces that sword, famine, and pestilence will consume them. The prophets who offered a contrary word receive their own sentence: those who spoke of lasting peace without commission will themselves die by sword and famine, and the people who listened will lie unburied in Jerusalem's streets.
Jeremiah's own experience reveals the personal cost of standing with this word. He describes his pain as unceasing and his wound as incurable, asking whether the LORD will become to him like a deceitful brook. The reply conditions his continued service on a return to uttering what is precious rather than worthless. In that posture he will stand before the LORD as his mouth, and the LORD promises to make him a fortified wall of bronze, delivering him from the hand of the wicked.
The passage therefore holds together two claims without resolution in these verses. God remains the only one who can bring rain or showers, the maker of all things, yet he will not be manipulated by appeals to his name when the people have rejected him and kept going backward. At the same time he sustains the one who bears his word, even while the land and its inhabitants face the consequences of remembered sin.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
The exchange between Jeremiah and the LORD raises several pointed questions that the text itself does not fully settle. In 14:11 the command not to pray for the people stands in direct response to the communal confession that immediately precedes it. The prayer acknowledges widespread iniquity and appeals to the LORD’s name and covenant, yet the divine reply treats the confession as insufficient to alter the course already set. Readers are left to consider whether the refusal stems from the insincerity of the words, the depth of prior rebellion, or a deliberate limit placed on intercession at this stage of judgment.
A second tension appears in 15:1. The LORD declares that even the intercession of Moses and Samuel would not change the verdict. The text offers no further explanation of why these two figures are named or what their presence would normally accomplish. It simply asserts that the people’s accumulated pattern of wandering has reached a point where customary appeals no longer avail. The verse therefore underscores the seriousness of the present moment without clarifying how that seriousness differs from earlier crises in Israel’s history.
Jeremiah’s own laments in 15:10 and 15:18 introduce another layer. He describes himself as a man of strife whom everyone curses and questions whether the LORD has become like a failing brook. The divine answer in 15:19-21 conditions restoration on Jeremiah’s return and on speaking what is precious rather than worthless. The passage does not indicate whether this condition implies prior failure on the prophet’s part or simply restates the standard for continued service. The text records both the complaint and the reply without supplying an explicit resolution.
Finally, the reference to Manasseh in 15:4 attributes the coming horror to actions performed decades earlier. The verse does not explain how later generations bear responsibility for those deeds or why this particular king is singled out when other rulers are also condemned elsewhere in the book. These silences leave open the precise relationship between ancestral sin and present judgment.
Movement by movement
Drought Devastates the Land14:1-6
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought opens directly onto a chain of visible effects. Judah mourned, and its gates languished; they grew dark to the land, and the cry of Jerusalem rose. Nobles send their young for water, yet the cisterns yield nothing, so the servants return with vessels empty and cover their heads in shame. The same gesture marks the farmers, who stand dismayed because no rain has fallen on the cracked soil. Even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons her young for lack of grass. On the bare heights the wild donkeys stand and sniff the wind like jackals, their eyes failing because no vegetation remains. These successive pictures move from human settlements to cultivated fields and finally to untamed animals, each scene registering the same absence of water and growth. The descriptions accumulate without interruption, letting the physical ruin itself carry the weight of the divine word that introduced them.
Appeal for the LORD's Name and Its Refusal14:7-12
The people address the LORD directly, acknowledging that their iniquities testify against them while urging action for the sake of his name. They call him Hope of Israel and Savior in time of trouble, then press the question why he should appear like a sojourner or a traveler who turns aside to lodge. The same voice insists he remains in their midst and they are called by his name, ending with the direct request not to forsake them. The reply comes in third-person form: the LORD states that this people have loved to wander and have not restrained their feet, so he does not accept them and will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. The command follows at once that Jeremiah must not pray for the welfare of this people. Even if they fast, the LORD declares he will not hear their cry, and even if they offer burnt offering and grain offering he will not accept them; instead he will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence."
False Prophets Exposed and Doomed14:13-16
Jeremiah reports that the prophets are assuring the people they will not see the sword nor famine, for lasting peace will come in this place. The LORD answers that these men were never sent, commanded, or spoken to by him. Their message is instead a vision of falsehood, divination, worthlessness, and the deceit of their own hearts. Because they have declared that sword and famine shall not come upon the land, the LORD states that those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. The people who listened to them will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem with none to bury them, their wives, sons, and daughters included, as the LORD pours out their calamity upon them." This exchange follows directly after the prohibition against praying for the people and the announcement that sword, famine, and pestilence will consume them. The prophets’ assurances stand in open contradiction to that word, yet the LORD treats their words as originating in themselves rather than in any divine commission. Their denial of the coming judgment becomes the very measure by which judgment falls on them and on those who believed them.
Grief over Shattered People and Renewed Plea14:17-22
The command directs Jeremiah to announce that the LORD’s own eyes run down with tears night and day without ceasing, because the virgin daughter of his people has suffered a shattering wound. The picture that follows places the speaker at the boundary between field and city: the slain lie outside, the famine-weakened lie inside, and prophet and priest alike continue their routines without knowledge of what has happened. From that vantage the address shifts to direct questions aimed at the LORD: whether Judah has been completely rejected and Zion loathed, why the blow has left no healing, and why hoped-for peace and healing have given way only to terror. The confession that follows names the wickedness of the present generation and the iniquity of the fathers as the reason for the crisis. The plea then appeals to the LORD’s name, his glorious throne, and the covenant itself, asking that none of these be broken or dishonored. The final question turns outward again, asking whether any of the false gods of the nations can send rain or whether the heavens themselves can give showers, and it rests hope instead on the LORD who alone has made all these things.
Judgment Fixed Even Against Intercessors15:1-9
Even Moses and Samuel standing before the LORD would change nothing for this people. The command comes without qualification: send them away from my presence. When they ask where they should go, the reply assigns each group its fixed end—death to death, sword to sword, famine to famine, captivity to captivity. Four agents then finish the work: the sword kills, dogs drag bodies away, and birds of the heavens together with beasts of the earth devour what remains. The cause is traced to Manasseh son of Hezekiah and what he did in Jerusalem, turning the whole nation into a horror among kingdoms. No one will pity Jerusalem or turn aside to ask after her welfare. The LORD has stretched out his hand and grown weary of relenting; he has winnowed the people in the gates of the land and bereaved them because they did not turn from their ways. Widows have become more numerous than the sand of the seas. A destroyer comes against the mothers of young men at noonday, and she who bore seven grows faint, her soul departing while her sun sets in daylight, leaving her shamed and disgraced as the rest are given to the sword before their enemies.
Jeremiah's Complaint and the LORD's Restoration15:10-21
Jeremiah opens with a direct cry to his mother for having borne him as a man of strife and contention to all the land, noting that though he has neither lent nor borrowed, everyone curses him. The complaint then turns to the LORD with a plea to remember and visit him, to take vengeance on his persecutors, and to spare him in divine forbearance because he bears reproach for the LORD’s sake. He recalls finding the LORD’s words and eating them so that they became joy and the delight of his heart, yet he has sat alone under the LORD’s hand, filled with indignation rather than joining revelers. His pain remains unceasing and his wound refuses healing, prompting the pointed question whether the LORD will prove like a deceitful brook whose waters fail. The reply conditions restoration on Jeremiah’s return: if he utters what is precious rather than worthless he will stand before the LORD as his mouth, and the people will turn to him without his turning to them. The LORD promises to make him a fortified wall of bronze against which attackers will not prevail, and to deliver him from the hand of the wicked and redeem him from the grasp of the ruthless."
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
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