Jeremiah 14:13

13 Then I said, "Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

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 The Lord said to me, "Do not ask me to help these people.

12 Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease."

13 Then I said, "Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land."

14 But the Lord replied, "The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

15 I, the Lord, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land - I will kill them in war and by starvation.