Bible Strands
Jeremiah 14:2
“Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers this oracle concerning a severe drought that has struck Judah. The message addresses the nation as agricultural failure forces the nobility to seek empty cisterns and cover their heads in shame.
The words — The Hebrew term אָבְלָ֣ה ('a.ve.Lah) denotes active mourning, while אֻמְלְל֖וּ ('um.le.Lu) describes the physical languishing of the city gates. These verbs map the drought’s progression from communal distress to infrastructural collapse.
The thread — The image of lamenting gates and ascending cries appears in Isaiah 3:26 and 1 Samuel 5:12. Jeremiah 8:21 similarly pairs national brokenness with a posture of mourning.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that ecological collapse triggers social and spiritual desolation. It requires the reader to confront the tangible consequences of covenant failure without softening the reality of the judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- Jeremiah 8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.
- 1 Samuel 5:12 Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.
- Lamentations 4:8 But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Zechariah 7:13 And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
- 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.
- Exodus 2:24 So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- 1 Samuel 9:16 “At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him ruler over My people Israel; he will save them from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”
- Job 34:28 They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.