Jeremiah 14:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The word of the Lord concerning the dearth Hebrew, על דברי הבצרות, respecting the matters of the restraints, that is, the drought, when the showers were restrained, or, as Moses and Solomon express it, when the heaven was shut up, and there was no rain. See Deuteronomy 11:17; 1 Kings 7:35. Thus the LXX., περι της αβροχιας, concerning the want of rain. So also the Chaldee and Syriac versions: and thus our translators understand the word, Jeremiah 17:8, rendering it, not dearth, as here, but drought: a calamity which, however, produced a dearth or famine, similar, it seems, to that in the time of Elijah. At what precise time this great drought took place, we are not informed in the records of history: nor whether it be the same with that of which an intimation is given chap Jeremiah 3:3, where see the note. That it was a calamity very incident to the land of Israel, and applied as a punishment of sin, appears from many parts of the Old Testament. The effects of it are described in the next five verses in very elegant and moving language, and afterward earnestly deprecated.