Jeremiah 14:13

13 I 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."

Jeremiah 14:13 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 14:13

Then said I, Ah, Lord God!
&c.] Being grieved at heart for the people, because he was forbid to pray for them, and because the Lord had resolved on the ruin of them; and the rather he pitied them, because they were deceived by the false prophets, and therefore he tries to excuse them, and lay the blame upon them, as follows: behold, the prophets say unto them;
that is, the false prophets, as the Targum; Jeremiah does not call them so, being willing to make the best of it: ye shall not see the sword;
the sword of the enemy drawn in your country, or fall by it: neither shall ye have famine;
by which it appears, that it was not yet come, only foretold; the contrary to which is here affirmed: but I will give you assured peace in this place;
so they spoke as from the Lord, and in his name, with all the confidence imaginable; assuring the people that they should have peace and prosperity, and be in the utmost safety in Jerusalem; and that neither famine nor sword would come to them, nor in the least hurt them. In the Hebrew text it is, "peace of truth" ^F12; that is, true peace, firm and lasting. The Septuagint render it "peace and truth"; see ( Isaiah 39:8 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 (tma Mwlv) "pacem veritatis", Montanus, Schmidt.

Jeremiah 14:13 In-Context

11 God said to me, "Don't pray that everything will turn out all right for this people.

12 When 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."

13 I 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."

14 Then 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.

15 "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.