Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 14:11

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 14:11. Pray not for this people — They are ripe for destruction, intercede not for them. O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people!

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Drought, disease and war (14:1-15:9)

A severe drought had hit Judah. People in all walks of life, from nobles to farmers, were affected by it, and they covered their heads as a sign of their distress. They had difficulty in getting enough water to keep themselves alive, and their animals were beginning to suffer from disease. Some had already died because of the lack of food (14:1-6).
Pleading on behalf of the people, Jeremiah confesses the nation’s sins. He asks God to cease acting as if he were an uninterested traveller passing through a strange land, and instead act to help them. After all, the land is his and so are the people (7-9). In reply God points out that he cannot overlook their sin. Jeremiah should stop pleading for them, because nothing can now save them from God’s judgment, a judgment that will come through war, famine and disease (10-12).
Jeremiah tells God that prophets have been assuring the people that these calamities will not overtake them (13). God replies that such prophets are false prophets. They will perish in shame and so will all those who believe them. The people have welcomed these prophecies of peace, because by such assurances they feel free to increase their wrongdoing without fear of punishment (14-16). Jeremiah weeps publicly to impress upon people the sorrow he feels as he foresees their terrible suffering (17-18).
Though his past pleas have not been answered, Jeremiah pleads with God yet once more. On behalf of the people he confesses their wrongdoing and asks that God will be merciful to them and give them rain. He prays that God will not forsake his people but will remember his covenant with them. There is no other God they can call upon to help them (19-22).

God replies that though Moses and Samuel had in the past pleaded successfully on behalf of the people (e.g. Exodus 32:11-14; Numbers 14:13-25; 1 Samuel 7:5-9; 1 Samuel 7:5-9; 1 Samuel 12:19-25), the nation has now passed the point where God can extend his mercy further. The false religion promoted by Manasseh still controls the attitudes of the people, and the nation will come to a cruel and humiliating end (15:1-4).

Time and again God has punished his people, with the purpose that they might acknowledge their sin and return to him; but always it has been without result. They do not deserve any further pity (5-6). The final slaughter is too horrible to imagine, but when people refuse to change their ways, such a judgment becomes inevitable (7-9).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

GOD REFUSES TO HEAR THEM

"Thus saith Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah doth not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. 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 famine, and by pestilence."

Clarke summarized God's reply to the prayer as follows: "The measure of Israel's iniquity being now full, they must be punished. The nation is ripe for destruction; intercede not for them."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), p. 295.

"They have loved to wander" There is nothing innocent about this "wandering." Cheyne rendered it, "roving lawlessly about."T. K. Cheyne, Jeremiah in the Pulpit Commentary, p. 355.

"Pray not for this people" Twice previously, God gave Jeremiah this same instruction (Jeremiah 7:15; Jeremiah 11:14); but Jeremiah had been unable to stop praying. No mother ever quit praying for a wayward son, no matter how hopeless his wickedness became. It could be that God was not really forbidding Jeremiah to pray but that he was merely pointing out the uselessness of any further prayers on behalf of apostate Israel.

"Jehovah doth not accept them" Keil's comment on the reason why God would not then hear Israel is thus:

The reason was that they turned to God only in their need, but while their hearts still clung to their idols. Their prayers were only lip-service, and their sacrifices a soulless formality.C. F. Keil, Keil-Delitzsch's Old Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), p. 249.

While it is certainly true that Keil's excellent comment here applied to the vast majority of the condemned people, we must also agree with Payne Smith who wrote:

"It is not necessary to say with Keil that Israel's fasts and sacrifices were `heartless formalities.' There would have been those whom the chastisement had brought to repentance (also, those of the "righteous remnant" J.B.C.); and for these the lesson was a sterner one. There is a time when the most genuine repentance avails nothing to avert the temporal consequences of sin."Scribner's Bible Commentary (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898), p. 406.

"Sword... famine… pestilence" This dreadful trio throughout the ages has been the perpetual destroyers of human life. They are frequently mentioned in scripture, as here and in Jeremiah 5:12; Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 27:8; Jeremiah 29:18; 2 Samuel 24:13; Isaiah 51:19, etc.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

God first forbids the Prophet to pray for the people, as we have before seen, (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14) But we must remember what I have said before, that this prohibition is to be understood as to their exile; for as God had already decreed that the people should be banished from the promised land, the Prophet was forbidden to pray, inasmuch as that decree was immutable. It is not, therefore, a general prohibition, as though the Prophet was not allowed to ask God’s forgiveness in behalf of the whole people, or at least in behalf of the godly who still remained. The Prophet might indeed pray in a certain way for the whole people, that is, that God, being satisfied with their temporal punishment, would at length spare the miserable with regard to eternal life: he might have also prayed for the remnant; for he knew that there was some seed remaining, though hidden; nay, he was himself one of the people, and he not only knew that some true servants of God were still remaining, but he had also some friends of his own, whose piety was sufficiently known to him. God, therefore, did not strictly exclude all his prayers, but every prayer with regard to the exile which was soon to be undergone by the people.

Except we bear in mind this.circumstance, the prohibition might seem strange; for we know that it is one of the first duties of love to be solicitous for one another before God, and thus to pray for the wellbeing of our brethren. (James 5:16) It is not then the purpose of God to deprive the Prophet of this holy and praiseworthy feeling, which is necessarily connected with true religion; but his design was to shew, that it was now in vain to implore him for the remission of that punishment which had been determined.

We hence see first, that under the name of people every individual was not included, for some seed remained; and we farther see that this prohibition extended not to eternal life, but on the contrary to temporal punishment. And the demonstrative pronoun this indicates contempt or disdain, as though he had said, “What! why shouldest thou pray for a people wholly unworthy of mercy; let them perish as they deserve.” So when he says, for good — לטובה lethube, it ought also to be referred to their exile, by which he intimates, “Hope not that what has been once fixed by me respecting this people can be changed by any prayers; they must therefore suffer the punishment which they have deserved, for I will banish them from the land.”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 14

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the deaRuth ( Jeremiah 14:1 ).

For a drought filled the land.

Judah mourns, and the gates languish; they are black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the water holes: they came to the water holes, and found no water; so they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and they covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, but it forsook the calf, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee ( Jeremiah 14:2-7 ).

So the message that God gave to Jeremiah concerning the drought. And then he prays:

O the hope of Israel, the saving thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should you be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; don't leave us ( Jeremiah 14:8-9 ).

So Jeremiah continues to intercede though God told him not to.

Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good ( Jeremiah 14:10-11 ).

Jeremiah just prayed. God said, "Don't pray to Me for their good."

When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offerings and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets are saying unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets are prophesying lies in my name: I did not send them, neither have I commanded them, neither did I speak unto them: they are prophesying unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their hearts. Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed ( Jeremiah 14:12-15 ).

It's a terrible thing to speak in the name of the Lord your own opinions, thoughts or ideas. It's all right to speak your own opinions, thoughts and ideas as your own opinions, thoughts and ideas. Now Paul the apostle was careful to make a distinction. In writing he said, "Now I don't have a word from the Lord on this, but this is my opinion on this subject." And that's good. You can express your opinion. There's nothing wrong with expressing your opinion. It's just when you express your opinion in the name of the Lord that it becomes wrong, because then when it doesn't work out, then you make God to be a liar or God to be made a fool. So there are a lot of people that are speaking in the name of the Lord things that are not really of the Lord, things that aren't really scriptural. Things that are really anti-scriptural. In fact, much like these prophets. "Everything is going to be great. Everybody is going to prosper. Everybody's just going to be healed and everybody should be prospering and God wants you all to go out and purchase new Mercedes and you'll be blessed and prosperous now. Peace, peace, prosperity." God said, "They're not prophesying from Me." For God said, "They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" ( 2 Timothy 3:12 ). If any man suffers according to the will of God. These false prophets, some of them are now saying if Jesus only had enough faith He wouldn't have had to suffer the cross. Oh, what blasphemy. And God will deal with them.

And 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 ( Jeremiah 14:16 ),

The bodies, they'll die and they'll just throw them out in the street. It's a horrible thing in some places in the world today. People are dying and there's really no one. They just put the body out in the street and they sweep them up like dust in the morning. Tragic. Person dies; you don't have enough strength. You just put the body out in the street and let someone else carry it off.

Therefore thou shalt say this word to them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day ( Jeremiah 14:17 ),

The weeping prophet.

and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold those that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not ( Jeremiah 14:17-18 ).

So he questions God.

Have you utterly rejected Judah? does your soul loathe Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold there is trouble! We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? ( Jeremiah 14:19-22 )

Here's this great drought. People are dropping off like flies. They're dying all over the place because of the famine and all. Are there any of these vanities of the Gentiles or the gods that the Gentiles worship, the pagan gods, that can cause rain?

or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things ( Jeremiah 14:22 ).

He continues this message on the drought. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

A lament during drought 14:1-16

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord further instructed Jeremiah not to pray for Him to turn back from punishing them (cf. Jeremiah 7:15; Jeremiah 11:14). Fasting and presenting sacrifices would not move Him to change, either (cf. Jeremiah 5:12; Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 27:8; Jeremiah 29:18; 2 Samuel 24:22-25; Isaiah 51:19). He had determined to destroy them with the sword, famine, and disease, the classic trio of war accompaniments. This is "tough love."

"A theological question is raised as to whether it is ever proper to give up praying for anyone. Perhaps one may pray for them to come to repentance by way of divine judgment, but breach of covenant leads unerringly to divine judgment." [Note: Thompson, p. 382.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then said the Lord unto me,.... To the prophet; now the Lord gives a more direct answer to him, and to his prayers and intercession for the people; which he forbids, saying,

pray not for this people for their good; or "for good things", as the Septuagint; for rain, that the famine might cease; and for deliverance from their enemies, that they might not go into captivity; for these things were determined upon by the Lord: he does not forbid him praying at all for them, or for their repentance and reformation; or for spiritual good things for them, for eternal life and salvation for the remnant of his own people among them; but not for external good things for the bulk of them.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      10 Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.   11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.   12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.   13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.   14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.   15 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.   16 And 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 upon them.

      The dispute between God and his prophet, in this chapter, seems to be like that between the owner and the dresser of the vineyard concerning the barren fig-tree, Luke 13:7. The justice of the owner condemns it to be cut down; the clemency of the dresser intercedes for a reprieve. Jeremiah had been earnest with God, in prayer, to return in mercy to this people. Now here,

      I. God overrules the plea which he had offered in their favour, and shows him that it would not hold. In answer to it thus he says concerning this people,Jeremiah 14:10; Jeremiah 14:10. He does not say, concerning my people, for he disowns them, because they had broken covenant with him. It is true they were called by his name, and had the tokens of his presence among them; but they had sinned, and provoked God to withdraw. This the prophet had owned, and had hoped to obtain mercy for them, notwithstanding this, through intercession and sacrifice; therefore God here tells him, 1. That they were not duly qualified for a pardon. The prophet had owned that their backslidings were many; and, though they were so, yet there was hope for them if they returned. But this people show no disposition at all to return; they have wandered, and they have loved to wander; their backslidings have been their choice and their pleasure, which should have been their shame and pain, and therefore they will be their ruin. They cannot expect God should take up his rest with them when they take such delight in going astray from him after their idols. It is not through necessity or inadvertency that they wander, but they love to wander. Sinners are wanderers from God; their wanderings forfeit God's favour, but it is their loving to wander that quite cuts them off from it. They were told what their wanderings would come to that one sin would hurry them on to another, and all to ruin; and yet they have not taken warning and refrained their feet. So far were they from returning to their God that neither his prophets nor his judgments could prevail upon them to give themselves the least check in a sinful pursuit. This is that for which God is now reckoning with them. When he denies them rain from heaven he is remembering their iniquity and visiting their sin; that is it for which their fruitful land is thus turned into barrenness. 2. That they had no reason to expect that the God they had rejected should accept them; no, not though they betook themselves to fasting and prayer and put themselves to the expense of burnt-offerings and sacrifice: The Lord doth not accept them,Jeremiah 14:10; Jeremiah 14:10. He takes no pleasure in them (so the word is); for what pleasure can the holy God take in those that take pleasure in his rivals, in any service, in any society, rather than his? "When they fast (Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 14:12), which is a proper expression of repentance and reformation,--when they offer a burnt offering and an oblation, which was designed to be an expression of faith in a Mediator,--though their prayers be thus enforced, and offered up in those vehicles that used to be acceptable, yet, because they do not proceed from humble, penitent, and renewed hearts, but still they love to wander, therefore I will not hear their cry, be it ever so loud; nor will I accept them, neither their persons nor their performances." It had been long since declared, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord; and those only are accepted that do well,Genesis 4:7. 3. That they had forfeited all benefit by the prophet's prayers for them because they had not regarded his preaching to them. This is the meaning of that repeated prohibition given to the prophet (Jeremiah 14:11; Jeremiah 14:11): Pray not thou for this people for their good, as before, Jeremiah 7:15; Jeremiah 11:14. This did not forbid him thus to express his good-will to them (Moses continued to intercede for Israel after God had said, Let me alone,Exodus 32:10), but it forbade them to expect any good effect from it as long as they turned away their ear from hearing the law. Thus was the doom of the impenitent ratified, as that of Saul's rejection was by that word to Samuel, When wilt thou cease to mourn for Saul? It therefore follows (Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 14:12), I will consume them, not only by this famine, but by the further sore judgments of sword and pestilence; for God has many arrows in his quiver, and those that will not be convinced and reclaimed by one shall be consumed by another.

      II. The prophet offers another plea in excuse for the people's obstinacy, and it is but an excuse, but he was willing to say whatever their case would bear; it is this, That the prophets, who pretended a commission from heaven, imposed upon them, and flattered them with assurances of peace though they went on in their sinful way, Jeremiah 14:13; Jeremiah 14:13. He speaks of it with lamentation: "Ah! Lord God, the poor people seem willing to take notice of what comes in thy name, and there are those who in thy name tell them that they shall not see the sword nor famine; and they say it as from thee, with all the gravity and confidence of prophets: I will continue you in this place, and will give you assured peace here, peace of truth. I tell them the contrary; but I am one against many, and every one is apt to credit that which makes for them; therefore, Lord, pity and spare them, for their leaders cause them to err." This excuse would have been of some weight if they had not had warning given them, before, of false prophets, and rules by which to distinguish them; so that if they were deceived it was entirely their own fault. But this teaches us, as far as we can with truth, to make the best of bad, and judge as charitably of others as their case will bear.

      III. God not only overrules this plea, but condemns both the blind leaders and the blind followers to fall together into the ditch. 1. God disowns the flatteries (Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 14:14): They prophesy lies in my name. They had no commission from God to prophesy at all: I neither sent them, nor commanded them, nor spoke unto them. They never were employed to go on any errand at all from God; he never made himself known to them, much less by them to the people; never any word of the Lord came to them, no call, no warrant, no instruction, much less did he send them on this errand, to rock them asleep in security. No; men may flatter themselves, and Satan may flatter them, but God never does. It is a false vision, and a thing of nought. Note, What is false and groundless in vain and worthless. The vision that is not true, be it ever so pleasing, is good for nothing; it is the deceit of their heart, a spider's web spun out of their own bowels, and in it they think to shelter themselves, but it will be swept away in a moment and prove a great cheat. Those that oppose their own thoughts of God's word (God indeed says so, but they think otherwise) walk in the deceit of their heart, and it will be their ruin. 2. He passes sentence upon the flatterers, Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 14:15. As for the prophets, who put this abuse upon the people by telling them they shall have peace, and this affront upon God by telling them so in God's name, let them know that they shall have no peace themselves. They shall fall first by those very judgments which they have flattered others with the hopes of an exemption from. They undertook to warrant people that sword and famine should not be in the land; but it shall soon appear how little their warrants are good for, when they themselves shall be cut off by sword and famine. How should they secure others or foretel peace to them when they cannot secure themselves, nor have such a foresight of their own calamities as to get out of the way of them? Note, The sorest punishment await those who promise sinners impunity in their sinful ways. 3. He lays the flattered under the same doom: The people to whom they prophesy lies, and who willingly suffer themselves to be thus imposed upon, shall die by sword and famine,Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 14:16. Note, The unbelief of the deceived, with all the falsehood of the deceivers, shall not make the divine threatenings of no effect; sword and famine will come, whatever they say to the contrary; and those will be least safe that are most secure. Impenitent sinners will not escape the damnation of hell by saying that they can never believe there is such a thing, but will feel what they will not fear. It is threatened that this people shall not only fall by sword and famine, but that they shall be as it were hanged up in chains, as monuments of that divine justice which they set at defiance; their bodies shall be cast out, even in the streets of Jerusalem, which of all places, one would think, should be kept clear from such nuisances: there they shall lie unburied; their nearest relations, who should do them that last office of love, being so poor that they cannot afford it, or so weakened with hunger that they are not able to attend it, or so overwhelmed with grief that they have no heart to it, or so destitute of natural affection that they will not pay them so much respect. Thus will God pour their wickedness upon them, that is, the punishment of their wickedness; the full vials of God's wrath shall be poured upon them, to which they have made themselves obnoxious. Note, When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and of the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another.