The Drought and the Prophets Who Prophesy Lies
1 This is Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: 2 “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up. 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. 4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. 5 Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. 6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation. 7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you. 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? 9 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, Yahweh, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don’t leave us. 10 Yahweh says to this people: “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.” 11 Yahweh said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good. 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, by famine, and by pestilence.” 13 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” 14 Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. 15 Therefore Yahweh says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine. 16 The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.
A drought produces a well-formed national prayer that is refused, and Jeremiah's plea that the people were misled is answered by holding both the liars and their audience responsible.
The drought is reported from the bottom up, and the details are chosen for what they show about degree. Servants sent to the cisterns come back with empty vessels and cover their heads. Plowmen do the same, because the ground has cracked and there is nothing to break. Then two animals. The doe abandons the fawn she has just borne. The wild donkeys stand on the heights panting, with their eyesight failing. When maternal instinct in a deer has gone, the scale is established without a single figure being quoted.
The prayer that follows is not a bad prayer. It concedes the charge: our iniquities testify against us, our rebellions are many, we have sinned. It appeals on the right ground, God's own name rather than the people's merit. It even reasons. Why should the hope of Israel behave like a stranger passing through, or like a strong man who cannot save? Every element is correct, and the answer is a refusal. That refusal is the hardest thing in the chapter. The reason attached to it is behavioral rather than verbal: they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Words offered by a people whose feet have not changed direction are declined as evidence.
So the ban on intercession is repeated for the third time, and this time fasting and offerings are named as also unacceptable. Jeremiah's response is the natural one and it is a defense of his people: the prophets keep telling them there will be no sword and no famine but assured peace. It is the strongest mitigation available — they were misinformed, and by men holding the office that exists to inform them.
The answer takes the mitigation apart in two moves. First, the liars are disowned in four flat denials: I didn't send them. I didn't command them. I didn't speak to them. Their material is named as a lying vision, divination, a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. Second, and harder, the audience is sentenced alongside them. The prophets will be consumed by the sword and famine they said would not come. The people to whom they prophesied will lie unburied in the streets. Being deceived is not accepted as a defense, and the reason was stated earlier in the book: my people love to have it so Jeremiah 5:31. A lie that is demanded is not simply received, and the market for it is judged with the men who supplied it.
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