Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

When today's reading opens, Judah is in the middle of a drought that has come as a part

of their judgment.

They cry out to God, but as we know, they're not crying out to Him for repentance, they're

only crying out to Him for relief.

Their prayer is beautiful, but most commentators seem to think it was actually Jeremiah

praying on their behalf again.

Here are two reasons why commentators think that.

A, we've seen no other signs of repentance from them.

And B, after the prayer, God tells Jeremiah again not to pray for them.

Regardless of who is praying this prayer, God responds in verses 10-13 and says the answer

is no.

What says his plan is to deliver them over to sword, famine, and pestilence.

And Jeremiah says, you know those are the exact things their prophets are telling them

you won't do, right?

Jeremiah seems to be trying to defend the people, because maybe they've just been misled

by the prophets.

First of all, they're still guilty of the sins of idolatry and oppressing the poor and

slaughtering their kids.

So even if the prophets were misleading them about there being no consequences for those

sins, they still committed those sins and have hearts that have turned away from God.

Jeremiah seems to forget that altogether.

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