Jeremiah 14:3

3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.

Jeremiah 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 14:3

And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters,
&c.] 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.

Jeremiah 14:3 In-Context

1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

2 Judah mourns, and the gates of it languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.

4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads.

5 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes [her young], because there is no grass.