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 through 13 and says the answer is no.

God 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.

And second, God makes it clear that those prophets are not His prophets.

All the things they're saying are things they're either making up in their own minds

or hearing from demons.

And in an ironic move of justice,

God will have them be devoured by the very things they promise

won't happen, including sword and famine, alongside the people who believed them.

God grieves over this, and then either Jeremiah or Judah offers up what appears to be

another prayer on Judah's behalf in verses 19 through 22. One reason to think

...