Jeremiah 14:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 14 A grievous famine prophesied; its miseries, Jeremiah 14:1-6. The prophet prayeth, but God will not be entreated for them, Jeremiah 14:7-12. Lying prophets no excuse for them, Jeremiah 14:13-16. The prophet's complaint, Jeremiah 14:17-22. What dearth we are not told, nor when it happened; some think that it was in the time of the siege of Jerusalem; others, that it was in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah; but they judge most probably that think it was in the time of Jehoiakim, for we read, Jeremiah 36:9, of an extraordinary fast by him proclaimed, which many judge was upon this occasion. The Hebrew phrase which is here used signifying, the matter of the restraints, gives interpreters some liberty to abound in their senses of this text; but the following words make it evident, Jeremiah 14:4,5, that the restraints here mentioned were God's restraining of water from them, so that the dearth was occasioned from a great drought, which is elegantly described in the five next verses, and deprecated Jeremiah 14:7-9, which make indeed but a preface to the revelation of the mind and will of God in this prophecy.