The Depths Of The Series Of Droughts (Jeremiah 14:1-6).
The plural for ‘droughts' suggests that there had been a series of droughts, probably over a number of years. Such droughts did occur in Canaan from time to time and their effects could be devastating. In the days of Joseph there had been one lasting for seven years, which had caused the move to Egypt. In the days of David there was one that lasted for three years ‘year after year' (2 Samuel 21:1) which caused great distress. In the days of Elijah there was one that lasted for three and a half years (1 Kings 17-18). Thus while, thankfully, comparatively rare, such severe droughts were not unknown.
‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.'
We are not told whether this word comes before the periods of the droughts, thus acting as a prophecy of their coming (as with Elijah - 1 Kings 17:1), or whether it came when the series of droughts were already in process with the emphasis being on the depth of the droughts and the lesson that follows.
Unlike Egypt with the Nile, and Mesopotamia with its great rivers, Judah and the surrounding countries very much depended on the rains for its water (and therefore on the God of Heaven - Leviticus 26:4; Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 11:11; Deuteronomy 28:12). When the rains were normal water was reasonably plentiful, but when the rains were sparse then the land suffered. Thus a period of two or three years when water was really scarce could bring the land to its knees. Reserves would soon be used up, cisterns would be drunk dry and the land would soon become barren. Water would be at a premium. That was the situation being described here.
‘Judah mourns,
And its gates languish,
They sit in black on the ground,
And the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.'
Jeremiah draws a vivid picture of the feelings of the population as they saw their land withering around them and struggled to find sufficient water for their families, while the hot sun continued to beat down. Judah was in mourning. Those who sat in the gates, the elders responsible for the cities and towns, were anxious and troubled. They had clothed themselves in black as a sign of their distress, whilst from the whole of Jerusalem a plaintive cry went up, ‘for pity's sake send us rain'.
‘And their nobles send their lowly 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.'
Even the large and wealthy households were without water. They sent their servants to their large cisterns, but they found no water there, and came back with their vessels empty, ashamed and confounded, and with their heads covered as a sign of their distress. This covering of their heads as a sign of distress is also mentioned in 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:5.
We are reminded here of Ahab's exhaustive and in depth searching of the land of Israel for sources of water during the great drought in the days of Elijah, when he had led one search party, and his chief minister the other. See 1 Kings 18:5-6.
‘Because of the ground which is cracked,
In that no rain has been in the land,
The ploughmen are put to shame,
They cover their heads.'
And it was not only the lowly servants who had to cover their heads in distress. The ground was cracked (literally ‘was struck with terror, dismayed'), there was no rain on it, and the ploughmen thus ploughed in vain, also ashamed because they were producing no food for their dependants, and they too were covering their heads in distress. There was distress throughout the land in both town and countryside.
‘Yes, the hind also in the field calves,
And forsakes her young, because there is no grass.
The droughts were such that even the hinds, famous for their motherly instinct, abandoned their new born calves because there was no grass, and therefore no milk for their calves.
‘And the wild asses stand on the bare heights,
They pant for air like jackals,
Their eyes fail,
Because there is no vegetation.'
And it was no better in the wild. The wild asses standing on the heights in the burning sun were desperate for air and panted as though they were jackals (we would say, like a dog). In the burning sun they were becoming dehydrated, weak and feeble, with their sight failing, because there was no vegetation (although the idea may simply be that ‘their eyes failed' because there was nothing to see).
Thus the whole land was affected and the situation was becoming desperate. All their efforts to make the gods concerned about their problems had failed and so at last they began again to think about YHWH.