Judah was in mourning. Her cities were languishing, as when their gates sagged on their hinges. The people sat on the ground as an expression of their humbled condition. The people of Jerusalem were crying out for relief. read more
The servants who had gone to draw water returned to their masters empty-handed. The cisterns, which collected rainwater in the cities, were dry. Even the wealthy nobles could find no water, and their servants covered their heads as though to protect themselves from heaven-sent calamity."Covering the head is a token of deep grief turned inwards upon itself; cf. 2 Sam. xv. 30; xix. 5." [Note: Keil, 1:245.] read more
The farmers, the lowest persons on the social scale, likewise felt humiliated by the lack of rain. The drought had cracked their land open and had made normal farming impossible. read more
Jeremiah’s Eighth Prophecy (Reign of Jehoiakim?). The Impending Drought and other WoesDialogue between the prophet and God. He intercedes; but in vain, for the nation persists in sin. In this section we probably see the state of matters in the early part of Jehoiakim’s reign. There is no historical allusion to the drought which formed the occasion of the prophecy. read more
1-6. Description of the drought.2. The gates thereof languish] Figurative of the people who collect there. They are black unto] RV ’They sit in black (mourning) upon.’3. Covered their heads] as a sign of grief or confusion: cp. David (2 Samuel 19:4) and Haman (Esther 6:12). 6. They snuffed up the wind] RV ’They pant for air.’ Dragons] RV ’jackals.’7-22. Jeremiah’s pleadings and God’s replies.7. Do thou it] RV ’work thou.’8. As a stranger, etc.] one who has no interest in the people. Turneth... read more
(2) The gates thereof languish.—The “gates” of the cities, as the chief places of concourse, like the agora of Greek cities, are taken figuratively for the inhabitants, who in the “black” garments of sorrow and with the pallor of the famine, in which all faces gather blackness, are crouching upon the ground in their despair. read more
(3) Their little ones.—Not their children, but their menial servants. The word is peculiar to Jeremiah, and occurs only here and in Jeremiah 48:4. The vivid picture of the messengers running hither and thither to all wells, and springs, and tanks, reminds us of Ahab’s search for wells or springs in the time of the great drought of his reign (1 Kings 18:5), of the “two or three cities wandering” to the one city that was yet supplied with water of Amos 4:8.The pits.—The tanks or reservoirs where,... read more
(4) The ground is chapt.—The word is so vivid as describing the long fissures of the soil in a time of drought that one admits with reluctance that no such meaning is found in the Hebrew word, which simply means is struck with terror. The translators apparently followed Luther, who gives lechzet—“languishes for thirst,” “gapes open with exhaustion,” and so applied to the earth, “is cracked or chapt.”As the “gates” in Jeremiah 14:2 stood for the people of the city, so the “ground” stands here as... read more
CHAPTER IXTHE DROUGHT AND ITS MORAL IMPLICATIONSJeremiah 14:1-22; Jeremiah 15:1-21 (17?)VARIOUS opinions have been expressed about the division of these chapters. They have been cut up into short sections, supposed to be more or less independent of each other; and they have been regarded as constituting a well-organised whole, at least so far as the eighteenth verse of chapter 17. The truth may lie between these extremes. Chapters 14, 15 certainly hang together; for in them the prophet... read more
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Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Jeremiah 14:1-16
A lament during drought 14:1-16 read more