\\INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 14\\

This chapter contains prophecy of a drought, which produced a famine,
\\#Jer 14:1\\, and is described by the dismal effects of it; and general
distress in the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem, \\#Jer 14:2\\, even the
nobles were affected with it, whose servants returned without water
ashamed, when sent for it, \\#Jer 14:3\\, the ploughmen could not use their
plough, their ground was so hard, \\#Jer 14:4\\ and the very beasts of the
field suffered much, because there was no grass, \\#Jer 14:5,6\\, upon this
follows a prayer of the prophet to the Lord, that he would give rain for
his name's sake; he confesses the sins of the people, that they were
many, and against the Lord; and testified against them, that they
deserved to be used as they were; and he addresses the Lord as the hope
and Saviour of his people in time past, when it was a time of trouble
with them; and expostulates with him, why he should be as a stranger and
traveller, and like a mighty man astonished, that either had no regard
to their land any more than a foreigner and a traveller; or no heart to
help them, or exert his power, than a man at his wits' end, though he
was among them, and they were called by his name; and therefore he begs
he would not leave them, \\#Jer 14:7-9\\, but he is told that it was for the
sins of the people that all this was, which the Lord was determined to
remember and visit; and therefore he is bid not to pray for them; if he
did, it would not be regarded, nor the people's fasting and prayers
also; for they should be consumed by the sword, famine, and pestilence,
\\#Jer 14:10-12\\, and though the prophet pleads, in excuse of the people,
that the false prophets had deceived them; yet not only the vanity and
falsehood of their prophecies are exposed, and they are threatened with
destruction, but the people also, for hearkening unto them,
\\#Jer 14:13-16\\, wherefore the prophet, instead of putting up a prayer for
them, has a lamentation dictated to him by the Lord, which he is ordered
to express, \\#Jer 14:17,18\\, and yet, notwithstanding this, he goes on to
pray for them in a very pathetic manner; he expostulates with God, and
pleads for help and healing; confesses the iniquities of the people;
entreats the Lord, for the sake of his name, glory, and covenant, that
he would not reject them and his petition; and observes, that the thing
asked for (rain) was what none of the gods of the Heathens could give,
or even the heavens themselves, only the Lord; and therefore determines
to wait upon him for it, who made the heavens, the earth, and rain,
\\#Jer 14:19-22\\.