Jeremiah 14:11
in Jeremiah 14Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Jehovah said unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
KJV
Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
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This verse in Jeremiah 14
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 11, 12.) And the Lord said to me: Do not pray for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not listen to their prayers, and if they offer burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; for I will consume them by sword, famine, and pestilence. It is foolish to pray for one who has sinned unto death, as John says: There is a sin unto death, I do not say that anyone should pray for him (1 John 5:16). All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not unto death.
This site's exposition
Truly they love to wander
on Jeremiah 14:10-12
The LORD answers the prayer by naming the pattern beneath it, “Truly they love to wander”. Jeremiah is told, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people”, and fasting and burnt offerings will not be accepted. The prophet is forbidden the very intercession his office exists to make.
This site's exposition
Then the LORD said to me
The LORD tells Jeremiah to stop praying for this people. Matthew Henry reads the command as a strong discouragement, and the prophet does pray again for the people in verses 19 to 22. Adam Clarke reads it as a sign that the people were ripe for destruction.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
In the Gospel, the Savior commends the unjust steward because, although he defrauded his master, he acted wisely for his own interests. The heretics in this instance pursued the same course. When they saw how great a matter a little fire had kindled, and that the flames applied by them to the foundations had by this time reached the housetops and that the deception practiced on many could no longer be hid, they asked for and obtained letters of commendation from the church, so that it might appear that until the day of their departure they had continued in full communion with it. Shortly afterward the distinguished Anastasius succeeded to the pontificate. But he was soon taken away, for it was not fitting that the head of the world should be struck off during the episcopate of one so great. He was removed, no doubt, that he might not seek to turn away by his prayers the sentence of God passed once for all. For the words of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning Israel applied equally to Rome: "Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. When they offer burnt offering and oblation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence."
Although God is by nature good, yet he is also just, and as the case requires. He knows how to heal but also how to strike. He brings peace, but he brings about evil. He desires repentance, yet he commands Jeremiah not to intercede for the sinful people, since, he says, even if they fast, I will not hear their prayer.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
However, it is plain, by the prayers we find in these verses, that the prophet did not understand it as a prohibition, but only as a discouragement, like that 1 John
10 ), but it forbade them to expect any good effect from it as long as they turned away their ear from hearing the law. Thus was the doom of the impenitent ratified, as that of Saul's rejection was by that word to Samuel, When wilt thou cease to mourn for Saul?
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Then said the Lord unto me,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Pray not for this people - They are ripe for destruction, intercede not for them. O, how dreadful is the state of that people in reference to whom the Lord says to his ministers, Pray not for them; or, what amounts nearly to a prohibition, withholds from his ministers the spirit of prayer and intercession in behalf of the people!
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
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיֹּ֥אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֵלָ֑י | ʾelai | to me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תִּתְפַּלֵּ֛ל | titpalel | you pray | H6419 → | 84 times |
| בְּעַד־ | bead- | for | H1157 → | 105 times |
| הָעָ֥ם | haam | the people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| הַזֶּ֖ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| לְטוֹבָֽה׃ | letovah | for good | H2896 → | 538 times |
וַיֹּ֥אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֵלָ֑יto me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תִּתְפַּלֵּ֛לyou pray
titpalelH6419 →84 times
בְּעַד־for
bead-H1157 →105 times
הָעָ֥םthe people
haamH5971 →1873 times
הַזֶּ֖ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
לְטוֹבָֽה׃for good
letovahH2896 →538 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 15:1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 11:14
As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ezekiel 14:14
then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.
- Ezekiel 14:20–21
then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.
- Psalms 106:23
So He said He would destroy them— had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.
- Jeremiah 7:15–16
And I will cast you out of My presence, just as I have cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.
- Jeremiah 11:14
Through
Jeremiah 11:14As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 7:16
As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you.
- Jeremiah 11:11
Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to bring upon them a disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to Me, but I will not listen to them.
- Jeremiah 7:16
Through
Exodus 32:10Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 9:14
Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”
- Deuteronomy 9:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; Jerome, LETTER 127.10; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Tertullian, ON PURITY 2.