Jeremiah 14
14GOD's Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought:H1697H3068H3414H1697H12262"Judah weeps, her cities mourn. The people fall to the ground, moaning, while sounds of Jerusalem's sobs rise up, up.H3063H56H8179H535H6937H776H6682H3389H59273The rich people sent their servants for water. They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry. They came back with empty buckets, wringing their hands, shaking their heads.H117H7971H6810H4325H935H1356H1360H4672H4325H7725H3627H7387H954H3637H2645H72184All the farm work has stopped. Not a drop of rain has fallen. The farmers don't know what to do. They wring their hands, they shake their heads.H127H2865H1653H776H406H954H2645H72185Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field because there is no grass—H365H3205H7704H5800H18776Eyes glazed over, on her last legs, nothing but skin and bones."H6501H5975H8205H7602H7307H8577H5869H3615H62127We know we're guilty. We've lived bad lives— but do something, GOD. Do it for your sake! Time and time again we've betrayed you. No doubt about it—we've sinned against you.H3068H5771H6030H6213H8034H4878H7231H23988Hope of Israel! Our only hope! Israel's last chance in this trouble! Why are you acting like a tourist, taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?H4723H3478H3467H6256H6869H1616H776H732H5186H38859Why do you just stand there and stare, like someone who doesn't know what to do in a crisis? But GOD, you are, in fact, here, here with us! You know who we are—you named us! Don't leave us in the lurch.H376H1724H1368H3201H3467H3068H7130H7121H8034H324010Then GOD said of these people: "Since they loved to wander this way and that, never giving a thought to where they were going, I will now have nothing more to do with them— except to note their guilt and punish their sins."H559H3068H5971H157H5128H2820H7272H3068H7521H2142H5771H6485H240311GOD said to me, "Don't pray that everything will turn out all right for this people.H559H3068H6419H5971H289612When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won't listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I'll not accept them. I'm finishing them off with war and famine and disease."H6684H8085H7440H5927H5930H4503H7521H3615H2719H7458H169813I said, "But Master, GOD! Their preachers have been telling them that everything is going to be all right—no war and no famine—that there's nothing to worry about."H559H162H136H3069H5030H559H7200H2719H7458H5414H571H7965H472514Then GOD said, "These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don't talk with them. The sermons they've been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.H3068H559H5030H5012H8267H8034H7971H6680H1696H5012H8267H2377H7081H457H434H8649H382015"So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, 'War and famine will never come here'—these preachers will die in war and by starvation.H559H3068H5030H5012H8034H7971H559H2719H7458H776H2719H7458H5030H855216And the people to whom they've been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I'll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.H5971H5012H7993H2351H3389H6440H7458H2719H6912H1992H802H1121H1323H8210H745117"And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them: "'My eyes pour out tears. Day and night, the tears never quit. My dear, dear people are battered and bruised, hopelessly and cruelly wounded.H559H1697H5869H3381H1832H3915H3119H1820H1330H1323H5971H7665H1419H7667H3966H2470H434718I walk out into the fields, shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses. I walk into the city, shocked by the sight of starving bodies. And I watch the preachers and priests going about their business as if nothing's happened!'"H3318H7704H2491H2719H935H5892H8463H7458H5030H3548H5503H776H304519God, have you said your final No to Judah? Can you simply not stand Zion any longer? If not, why have you treated us like this, beaten us nearly to death? We hoped for peace— nothing good came from it; We looked for healing— and got kicked in the stomach.H3988H3988H3063H5315H1602H6726H5221H4832H6960H7965H2896H6256H4832H120520We admit, O GOD, how bad we've lived, and our ancestors, how bad they were. We've sinned, they've sinned, we've all sinned against you!H3045H3068H7562H5771H1H239821Your reputation is at stake! Don't quit on us! Don't walk out and abandon your glorious Temple! Remember your covenant. Don't break faith with us!H5006H8034H5034H3678H3519H2142H6565H128522Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain? Can the sky water the earth by itself? You're the one, O GOD, who does this. So you're the one for whom we wait. You made it all, you do it all.H3426H1892H1471H1652H8064H5414H7241H3068H430H6960H6213
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