View Jeremiah 14 in the note window.
A grievous famine prophesied, its miseries, ver. 1 - 6.
The prophet prays, but God will not be entreated for them, ver. 7 - 12.
Lying prophets no excuse for them, ver. 13 - 16.
The prophet's complaint, ver. 17 - 22.
5: The hind - Hinds use not to get their food in fields, but upon
mountains and in wildernesses, but the drought was such, that these
creatures came into the lower grounds, and there brought forth their
young. The hinds are loving creatures and as all creatures love their
young, so hinds especially; but their moisture being dried up, they
could not suckle them, but were forced to leave them, running about to
seek grass to eat.
6: The wild asses - The wild asses wanting water, got upon high
places, where was the coolest air, and sucked in the wind; and this
it is said they did like dragons, of whom Aristotle and Pliny report,
that they ordinarily stand upon high places sucking in the cool air.
7: Testify - That thou art righteous in what thou hast done.
Do thou it - Do thou what we stand in need of; give us rain, though
not for our sake, we deserve no such kindness from thee, yet for
thy names sake: thy promise, or for thine honour and glory.
9: Astonished - In such disorder through some great passion, that he
is able to do nothing. A mighty man - Like a man who in his own nature
is strong, but through sickness so weakened, that he cannot put forth
any strength for the succour of his friends. Yet - Yet (saith the prophet)
thou art in the midst of us; of the whole land, according to what God had
declared, (Nu 5:3,35:34).
Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the
Lord dwell among the children of Israel.
10: Thus - Here begins the answer to the prophet's complaint and
prayer in the nine first verses. The substance is, that for their
manifold sins, he was resolved to punish them. They loved - They have
been fond of their idols, and they have persisted in those sinful
courses, notwithstanding all counsels.
21: The throne - The words are either to be understood of the throne
of the house of David, called the Lord's throne, (1Ch 29:23),
or else the temple, and the ark in it, the more special symbol of
God's presence.
22: Rain - The present judgment under which they groan, was a
drought, which he had described in the six first verses; the prophet
imploring God for the removal of it, argues, from the impossibility
of help in this case from any other way, none of the idols of the
Heathens, which he calls vain things, nothing in themselves, and of
no use, or profit to those that ran after them. Give showers - Without
thy will? Art not - Lord, art not thou he alone who is able to do it?
The scripture constantly gives God the honour of giving rain.
