Jeremiah 14:9
in Jeremiah 14Why are You like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? Yet You are among us, O LORD, and we are called by Your name. Do not forsake us!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Why shouldest thou be as a man affrighted, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
KJV
Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
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This verse in Jeremiah 14
Commentary
12 notes on this verse(Verse 9) Why are you going to be like a tenant on the land, and like a traveler turning to stay? Why are you going to be like a wanderer, or like a strong man who cannot save? Septuagint: Why have you become like a stranger in the land, and like a foreigner turning to stay? Are you going to be like a sleeping man, and like a man who cannot save? The Jews understand this place thus: Why do you separate yourself from your people?
This site's exposition
Although our iniquities testify against us
on Jeremiah 14:7-9
The people’s prayer names its own guilt, “our rebellions are many”, and asks the LORD to act “for the sake of Your name”. It calls him the Hope of Israel and its Savior. Verse 10 shows that this honest prayer still falls short of the turning the LORD requires.
This site's exposition
Why are You like a man taken by surprise
Barnes explains the phrase as a man caught off guard who loses his presence of mind. Adam Clarke notes that the ark, the temple and its rites were still in the city, so the people could say God was among them. They plead the name they bear.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Again, the Scriptures speak of God as asleep when the psalmist says, "Arise! Why do you sleep, O Lord?" He does not say this to make us suspect that God sleeps. This would be the utmost madness. By the word sleep the psalm shows God's patience and forbearance toward us. Another prophet has said, "You will not be like a person who sleeps, will you?" Do you not see that we need much help from our understanding and reason when we are searching into the treasure house of the divine Scriptures? If we listen to the words only, if we do not think but take the words as they come, not only will those absurdities follow, but many a conflict will be seen in what has been said.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
): " Leave us not, withdraw not thy favour and presence." Note, We should dread and deprecate God's departure from us more than the removal of any or all our creature-comforts. Their relation to God, their interest in him, and their expectations from him grounded thereupon, are most pathetically pleaded with him,
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
(1.) They look upon him as one they have reason to think should deliver them when they are in distress, yea, though their iniquities testify against them; for in him mercy has often rejoiced against judgment. The prophet, like Moses of old, is willing to make the best he can of the case of his people, and therefore, though he must own that they have sinned many a great sin ( Exod. xxxii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
"Lord, do it, that they mercy may be magnified, thy promise fulfilled, and thy interest in the world kept up; we have nothing to plead in ourselves, but every thing in thee." There is another petition in this prayer, and it is a very modest one (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied,....
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
THIS passionate appeal for mercy was forced from the people by extreme misery. There was a famine in the land until men fell in the streets of the city exhausted with hunger. Drought had long prevailed and lack of water was terribly felt. Meanwhile, invasion kept them in perpetual fear, so that the Prophet lamented, "If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then, behold, them that are sick with famine!" Such judgment had God inflicted on a guilty nation for her sin. No springs were bubbling up from the earth and no rain dropped down from Heaven. This dire privation had produced universal distress. "Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up." As the calamity, like a river of lava, burned its dreadful way, an eyewitness, in his heart's anguish, describes a few common scenes which forcefully tell the tale of utter desolation. Princes and peasants are seized with the same consternation—the Prophet paints them both with their heads covered in token of a common grief. Here in the city the children are coming back from the place of pools and fountains with empty pitchers, for they find not a drop of water in the pits. Out yonder in the fields the ground is chapped and cleft by the scorching sun in the absence of dew or rain. The plow is of no use in that parched soil! Farmers are sitting down ashamed, confounded, utterly dejected—it is vain for them to lift the hand of labor. Down in the valleys the dumb cattle express their feeling with throes of anguish—the hind calves and forsakes her young. And up on the mountain heights the wild asses prove their share in the universal distress.
THIS passionate appeal for mercy was forced from the people by extreme misery. There was a famine in the land until men fell in the streets of the city exhausted with hunger. Drought had long prevailed and lack of water was terribly felt. Meanwhile, invasion kept them in perpetual fear, so that the Prophet lamented, "If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then, behold, them that are sick with famine!" Such judgment had God inflicted on a guilty nation for her sin.
Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us - Thy ark, temple, and sacred rites, are all here; and thou thyself, who art every where present, art here also: but alas! thou dost not reveal thyself as the Father of mercies, who forgivest iniquity, transgression, and sin. We are called by thy name; leave us not - Let us call thee our Father, and say thou to us, “Ye are my sons and daughters!” O leave us not!
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Astonied - The word may possibly mean “one who is taken by surprise and loses his presence of mind.”
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
So have they loved to wander So, just as I have decreed upon them exile (to Egypt and Babylon - Warsaw edition), they loved it there to go into exile to worship distant idols.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לָ֤מָּה | lamah | <to> why? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| תִֽהְיֶה֙ | tihyeh | are you | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| כְּאִ֣ישׁ | keish | like a person | H376 → | 1663 times |
| נִדְהָ֔ם | nidham | astounded | H1724 → | |
| כְּגִבּ֖וֹר | kegibor | like a warrior | H1368 → | 158 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | [who] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יוּכַ֣ל | yukhal | he is able | H3201 → | 194 times |
| לְהוֹשִׁ֑יעַ | lehoshia' | to save | H3467 → | 206 times |
| וְאַתָּ֧ה | veatah | and you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| בְקִרְבֵּ֣נוּ | vekirbenu | [are] in midst our | H7130 → | 227 times |
| יְהוָ֗ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וְשִׁמְךָ֛ | veshimkha | and name your | H8034 → | 864 times |
| עָלֵ֥ינוּ | ʾaleinu | on us | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| נִקְרָ֖א | nikra' | it is called | H7121 → | 733 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תַּנִּחֵֽנוּ׃ ס | tanichenu | you abandon us | H5117 → | 142 times |
לָ֤מָּה<to> why?
lamahH4100 →752 times
תִֽהְיֶה֙are you
tihyehH1961 →3559 times
כְּאִ֣ישׁlike a person
keishH376 →1663 times
נִדְהָ֔םastounded
nidhamH1724 →
כְּגִבּ֖וֹרlike a warrior
kegiborH1368 →158 times
לֹא־[who] not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
יוּכַ֣לhe is able
yukhalH3201 →194 times
לְהוֹשִׁ֑יעַto save
lehoshia'H3467 →206 times
וְאַתָּ֧הand you
veatahH859 →1094 times
בְקִרְבֵּ֣נוּ[are] in midst our
vekirbenuH7130 →227 times
יְהוָ֗הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וְשִׁמְךָ֛and name your
veshimkhaH8034 →864 times
עָלֵ֥ינוּon us
ʾaleinuH5921 →5755 times
נִקְרָ֖אit is called
nikra'H7121 →733 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תַּנִּחֵֽנוּ׃ סyou abandon us
tanichenuH5117 →142 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.
it leads to
- Revelation 10:9–10
And I went to the angel and said, “Give me the small scroll.” “Take it and eat it,” he said. “It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as…
- Ezekiel 3:1–3
“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.”
- Psalms 119:101–103
I have kept my feet from every evil path, that I may keep Your word.
- Job 23:12
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
- Psalms 19:10
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
- Revelation 10:9–10
Through
Isaiah 59:1Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.
it leads to
- Isaiah 50:2
Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold,…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 32:17
“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!
- Numbers 11:23
The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not My word will come to pass.”
- Isaiah 50:2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1661: “Praying and Pleading” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Chrysostom, AGAINST THE ANOMOEANS 8:5; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.