Jeremiah 14:3

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah concerning the matter of the severe drought. ² "Judah mourns, and her gates languish, they are in mourning on the ground, and the cry of lament of Jerusalem goes up. ³ And their nobles send their servants for water. They come to the pits, they find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are ashamed, and they are confounded, and they cover their heads. ⁴ Because of the ground, which is cracked because there was no rain on the ground. The farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads. ⁵ For even the doe in the field gives birth and forsakes her young, because there is no green growth. ⁶ And wild asses stand on the barren heights, they gasp for breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation." ⁷ Although our iniquities testify against us, O Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you. ⁸ You are the hope of Israel, its savior in time of distress. Why should you be like an alien in the land, or like a traveler who spreads out his tent to spend the night? ⁹ Why should you be like a confused man, like a warrior who is not able to help? Yet you are in our midst, O Yahweh, and your name is called upon us. You must not leave us!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

their nobles: 1 Kings 18:5, 1 Kings 18:6

pits: Jeremiah 2:13, 1 Kings 17:7, 2 Kings 18:31, Joel 1:20, Amos 4:8

they were: Jeremiah 2:26, Jeremiah 2:27, Jeremiah 20:11, Psalms 40:14, Psalms 109:29, Isaiah 45:16, Isaiah 45:17

covered: Jeremiah 14:4, 2 Samuel 15:30, 2 Samuel 19:4, Esther 6:12

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:15 - the water Exodus 24:11 - nobles Job 6:20 - confounded Psalms 107:33 - watersprings Isaiah 5:13 - multitude Isaiah 22:17 - cover Jeremiah 15:18 - and as Jeremiah 48:12 - empty Jeremiah 51:51 - shame Joel 1:11 - ashamed 2 Peter 2:17 - are wells

Cross-References

Genesis 19:24
Yahweh rained down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh.

Numbers 34:12
The boundary will go down to the Jordan, and its limits will be at the Salt Sea. This will be your land according to its boundaries all around.'"

Deuteronomy 3:17
And the Jordan Valley with the Jordan River as its boundary, from Kinnereth up to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, with the slopes of Pisgah toward the east.

Joshua 3:16
the waters flowing down from above stood still; they stood up in one heap very far from Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while the waters flowing down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

Psalms 107:34
a fruitful land into a salty place, because of the evil of its inhabitants.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 empty; just as they came:

they were ashamed and confounded; either the servants that were sent, or rather their masters that sent them, when they saw them come with their empty vessels; having been looking out and longing for their return, expecting they would have brought water with them for their refreshment; but to their great disappointment and confusion brought none:

and covered their heads; as persons ashamed, or as mourners used to do, being full of anguish and distress because of the drought.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.