TRV
Translation
Young's Literal Translation
And Jehovah saith unto me: Thou dost not pray for this people for good,
In the KJVVerse 19,305 of 31,102
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Commentary on Jeremiah 14 verses 10–16
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, Luk 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, Jer 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, Jer 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 (Jer 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, Gen 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 (Jer 14:11): Pray not thou for this people for their good, as before, Jer 7:15; Jer 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, Exo 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 (Jer 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, Jer 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 (Jer 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, Jer 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, Jer 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.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 10–16. Public domain.
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TertullianAD 220
ON PURITY 2
Although God is by nature good, yet he is also just, and as the case requires. He knows how to heal but also how to strike. He brings peace, but he brings about evil. He desires repentance, yet he commands Jeremiah not to intercede for the sinful people, since, he says, even if they fast, I will not hear their prayer.
Athanasius of AlexandriaAD 373
LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF EGYPT 1:6
Hence it is that they are always writing, and always altering their own previous statements, and thus they show an uncertain faith, or rather a manifest unbelief and perverseness. And this, it appears to me, must be the case with them. Since they have fallen away from the truth and desire to overthrow that sound confession of faith that was drawn up at Nicaea, they have, in the language of Scripture, “loved to wander and have not restrained their feet.” Therefore, like Jerusalem of old, they labor and toil in their changes, sometimes writing one thing and sometimes another, but only for the sake of gaining time, and that they may continue enemies of Christ and deceivers of humankind.
JeromeAD 420
LETTER 127.10
In the Gospel, the Savior commends the unjust steward because, although he defrauded his master, he acted wisely for his own interests. The heretics in this instance pursued the same course. When they saw how great a matter a little fire had kindled, and that the flames applied by them to the foundations had by this time reached the housetops and that the deception practiced on many could no longer be hid, they asked for and obtained letters of commendation from the church, so that it might appear that until the day of their departure they had continued in full communion with it. Shortly afterward the distinguished Anastasius succeeded to the pontificate. But he was soon taken away, for it was not fitting that the head of the world should be struck off during the episcopate of one so great. He was removed, no doubt, that he might not seek to turn away by his prayers the sentence of God passed once for all. For the words of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning Israel applied equally to Rome: “Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. When they offer burnt offering and oblation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence.”
JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Jeremiah
(Verse 11, 12.) And the Lord said to me: Do not pray for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not listen to their prayers, and if they offer burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; for I will consume them by sword, famine, and pestilence. It is foolish to pray for one who has sinned unto death, as John says: There is a sin unto death, I do not say that anyone should pray for him (1 John 5:16). All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not unto death. Fasting, prayers, and offerings and burnt offerings are then effective when we turn away from vices and repent of our ancient sins. But if we remain in wickedness and think that we can redeem ourselves through vows and sacrifices, we are greatly mistaken, for we consider God unfair. For whoever has been appointed once to the sword, hunger, and disease cannot be saved by any prayers. Hence, it is said by the Prophets, let him not pray in vain for what he cannot obtain.
John CassianAD 435
CONFERENCE 3:21.14
You see, then, that fasting is certainly not considered by the Lord as a thing that is good in its own nature, because it becomes good and well-pleasing to God not by itself but by other works. Again, from the surrounding circumstances it may be regarded as not merely empty but hateful, as the Lord says: “When they fast, I will not hear their prayers.”
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 14:11 marks a somber and definitive moment in the prophet Jeremiah's ministry, where the LORD issues an unequivocal command for him to cease interceding on behalf of the people of Judah. This divine prohibition underscores the severity of Judah's persistent sin, idolatry, and unrepentance, signaling that the nation has reached a critical point where God's patience has been exhausted, and His righteous judgment is now inevitable and irreversible. It highlights the tragic consequences of prolonged rebellion against the covenant, even in the face of prophetic warnings and divine long-suffering.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The primary literary device at play in Jeremiah 14:11 is Divine Command and Prohibition. The LORD's direct address to Jeremiah, "Pray not," is an unequivocal imperative, demonstrating God's absolute sovereignty and the finality of His decision regarding Judah's fate. This stark command functions as a form of Dramatic Irony, as the prophet, who has been passionately interceding for his people, is now explicitly forbidden from doing so by the very God he serves. The phrase "for their good" serves as a poignant Understatement, highlighting that the very thing Jeremiah desires for his people (their welfare and prosperity) is precisely what God has determined they will not receive through prayer at this juncture. The verse's brevity and directness also contribute to its powerful impact, conveying a sense of Finality and the grave, inevitable consequences of persistent rebellion.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 14:11 presents a profound theological truth: while God is infinitely patient and merciful, there is a limit to His forbearance when a people persistently rejects His covenant and refuses to repent. This verse underscores the seriousness of unrepentant sin, demonstrating that divine judgment is not arbitrary but a just response to prolonged rebellion. It reveals that God's justice is as integral to His character as His mercy, and He will not indefinitely tolerate spiritual adultery and idolatry. The command to cease intercession is a stark indicator that the nation's heart has become so hardened that even prophetic prayer cannot alter the course of decreed judgment, emphasizing the tragic consequences of a people's deliberate turning away from the Lord. This passage serves as a sobering reminder that while God desires all to come to repentance, He also upholds His righteous standards.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 14:11 is a challenging verse, prompting us to consider the gravity of persistent sin and the boundaries of divine patience. It serves as a powerful reminder that while God is merciful and desires all people to repent, there can come a point, for an individual or a nation, where a continued rejection of His grace leads to an irreversible decree of judgment. This passage should not lead us to despair about the efficacy of prayer, but rather to a deeper understanding of God's holy character and the profound seriousness of our choices. It calls us to urgent self-examination, encouraging us to confess and repent of any areas of unrepentant sin in our own lives, lest we harden our hearts to God's voice. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of living in faithful obedience, recognizing that true "good" and welfare come from walking in God's ways, not from presuming upon His mercy while living in rebellion.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does God ever stop listening to prayers?
Answer: Jeremiah 14:11 is a specific, unique command given to Jeremiah regarding a particular people (Judah) at a specific point in their history when their rebellion had reached an extreme and unrepentant state. It does not imply that God generally stops listening to the prayers of His people. The Bible consistently encourages prayer, promising that God hears those who call upon Him in truth and faith, as Psalm 145:18 affirms. However, this verse reveals that there are circumstances where God, in His righteous judgment, may determine that a people's sin has reached a point where immediate temporal "good" or deliverance from decreed judgment is no longer His will, and continued intercession for that specific outcome would be contrary to His divine purpose. It's a statement about the finality of judgment for a hardened people, not a general principle about prayer being unheard or ineffective for those who genuinely seek Him.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
While Jeremiah 14:11 presents a sobering picture of God's judgment against an unrepentant people, it ultimately points to the profound difference wrought by the coming of Christ. In the Old Testament, even the greatest prophets like Jeremiah faced limitations in their intercession for a people determined to reject God. However, the New Testament reveals Jesus Christ as the ultimate and perfect Intercessor, whose prayer is always heard and effective for those who are in Him. Unlike Judah, whose sin reached a point of no return for averting temporal judgment, believers in Christ find a perpetual advocate at the right hand of God, as Romans 8:34 declares. Through His atoning sacrifice, Jesus has dealt decisively with the sin that separated humanity from God, opening a new and living way to the Father, as Hebrews 10:19-20 teaches. The "good" that Judah could no longer pray for—restoration and well-being—is precisely what Christ offers eternally to all who believe, not based on their merit, but on His perfect righteousness and finished work, for God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus, while Jeremiah was forbidden to pray for Judah's temporal good due to their unrepentance, Christ's ongoing intercession secures the eternal good and salvation of His elect, ensuring that God's people will never face a divine command to cease prayer for their ultimate spiritual welfare.