Jeremiah 14:3

And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. LITTLE ONES - rather, 'their inferiors,' i:e., domestics. THEY CAME TO THE PITS - cisterns for collecting rain-water, often met with in the East, where there are no springs. COVERED THEIR HEADS - (, "David, wept as he went up, and had his head covered"). A sign of humiliation and mourning....

It is then added, _Their chiefs will send the common people to the waters _The Prophet’s object was again to point out something extraordinary, — that the great, possessing authority, would constrain and compel the common sort to draw water. They have _sent _them, he says, that is, by authority; they who could command others sent them to the waters. (106) _They came, _he says, _to the cisterns _By the word גבים _gabim, _he means deep ditches, or pits; but some render them cisterns. With regard to the subject in hand, it signifies not; for the Prophet no doubt meant that they would come to the deepest wells or pits, as it is usually done ia a great drought; for many springs become often dry, and pits also, situated in high places; but in valleys some water remains, and there it may be had: there are also some wells ever full of water, where its abundance never fails. It was therefore the...

1-9 The people were in tears. But it was rather the cry of their trouble, and of their sin, than of their prayer. Let us be thankful for the mercy of water, that we may not be taught to value it by feeling the want of it. See what dependence husbandmen have upon the Divine providence. They cannot plough nor sow in hope, unless God water their furrows. The case even of the wild beasts was very pitiable. The people are not forward to pray, but the prophet prays for them. Sin is humbly confessed. Our sins not only accuse us, but answer against us. Our best pleas in prayer are those fetched from the glory of God's own name. We should dread God's departure, more than the removal of our creature-comforts. He has given Israel his word to hope in. It becomes us in prayer to show ourselves more concerned for God's glory than for our own comfort. And if we now return to the Lord, he will save us t...

Verse Jeremiah 14:3. _THEIR NOBLES HAVE SENT THEIR LITTLE ONES_] So general was this calamity, that the servants no longer attended to their lords, but every one was interested alone for himself; and the _nobles_ of the land were obliged to employ their _own children_ to scour the land, to see if any water could be found in the tanks or the pits. In the dearth in the time of Elijah, Ahab the king, and Obadiah his counsellor, were obliged to traverse the land _themselves_, in order to find out water to keep their cattle alive. This and the three following verses give a lively but distressing picture of this dearth and its effects....

LITTLE ONES - mean ones, the common people. The word is unique to Jeremiah Jeremiah 48:4. THE PITS - i. e., tanks for holding water. COVERED THEIR HEADS - The sign of grief....

EXPOSITION This chapter must be read in connection with the following one. They describe chiefly Jeremiah's twofold attempt at intercession (see verses 7-9 and 19-22)—a tender and appealing attempt indeed. The terrible sufferings of the people during a drought went to the prophet's heart. He even ventured, when repelled the first time, to intercede anew, on the ground of the covenant, but in vain. On receiving (Jeremiah 15:2) a revelation of the bitter fate in store for his people, he bursts out into a heartrending complaint that his own destiny should throw him into such a whirlpool of strife. His Lord at once corrects and consoles him (Jeremiah 15:10). There are doubts, however, about the connection of these latter verses—The date of the drought is not stated; but as the punishm

AND THEIR NOBLES HAVE SENT THEIR LITTLE ONES TO THE WATERS,.... To places where water used to be; to the pools, the upper and the lower, particularly to the fountain of Shiloah, which, Jerom says, was the only one the city of Jerusalem used. The meaning either is, that the nobles in Jerusalem sent their own children to get water for them, they having no servants to attend them, these being put away because they could not support them, the famine being so sore; or rather that they sent their menial servants, their subjects, as the Targum renders it, to fetch them a little water to refresh themselves with: THEY CAME TO THE PITS AND FOUND NO WATER; their servants came according to order to the pools and cisterns, or to the deep wells, and to such places where there used to be a great confluence of water, and plenty of it, but now they could find none: THEY RETURNED WITH THEIR VESSELS EMPT...

In some respects, Jeremiah is one of the greatest of the ancient prophets, for he had most sorrowful task to perform. He had not to deliver a message full of Evangelical comfort, like that of Isaiah; nor had he gorgeous visions of coming kingdoms, as Ezekiel had; but he was the Cassandra of ibis age. Jeremiah spoke the truth, yet few believed him; his life was spent in sighing over a wicked people who rejected and despised him. He bore a heavy burden upon his heart, and tears continually bedewed his Cheeks, so that he was rightly called «the weeping prophet.» This chapter gives us an illustration of the style in which he used to pray. Jeremiah 14:1. _The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth._ There had been no rain, so the crops had failed, and there was a famine in the land. Jeremiah describes that famine in striking poetic imagery....

II. THE PROPHET'S MINISTRY BEFORE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM, THE PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF JEREMIAH, HIS FAITHFULNESS AND HIS SUFFERING CHAPTER 14 The Great Drought, the Sword, the Famine, and the Pestilence _ 1. The description of the drought (Jeremiah 14:1) _ 2. The prophet's priestly intercession (Jeremiah 14:7) 3. The answer (Jeremiah 14:10) 4. The renewed prayer (Jeremiah 14:19) Jeremiah 14:1. The vivid description of the great drought is gi

JEREMIAH 14:1 TO JEREMIAH 15:9. THE DROUGHT IN JUDAH, AND JEREMIAH'S CONSEQUENT INTERCESSION. The date of this disaster is unknown, but some year in the latter half of Jehoiakim's reign is most probable. The effects of the drought are graphically described in Jeremiah 14:2. The personified gates represent the people who gather at them in mourning attire and attitude (sit in black upon the ground; _cf._ Jeremiah 8:21; Jeremiah 13:18). The empty pits are dried-up storage cisterns (_cf._...