Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 14:4

Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

4. Because of the ground, etc.] rather, according to Du.’s excellent emendation, with a slight change in MT., virtually supported by LXX, The tillers of the ground are dismayed. This enables us to restore (with mg.) to the verb rendered “chapt,” but elsewhere used only of persons, its right sense, thus at the same time re-establishing parallelism of clauses.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Is chapt – Rather, is dismayed. The ground is used metaphorically for the people who until the ground.

In the earth – i. e., in the land.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. The ground is chapt] The cracks in the earth before the descent of the rains are in some places a cubit wide, and deep enough to receive the greater part of a human body.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The Hebrew word signifieth more largely than chapt, broken, spoiled, turned into dust, as is usual in great droughts. The word also which we translate ploughmen, doth not strictly signify ploughmen, but husbandmen: there having been no rain upon the earth, it brought forth little or no grass for those that employed themselves in breeding or feeding cattle; and it was so hard, and so much wanted moisture, that they could not plough nor sow, but were like men ashamed and confounded, who knew not what to do.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Because the ground is chapt,…. Through the violent heat of the sun, and want of rain; or, is broken y; and crumbles into dust. The Targum is,

“because of sins, the inhabitants of the earth are broken:”

for there was no rain in the earth; this was the reason of the dearth, and of the famine, and why there was no water in the pits, and the ground was parched. It is to be understood of the land of Judea only, not of the whole earth:

the ploughmen were ashamed; because they could not work the earth with their plough; were obliged to sit still, could do no work, or go on with their husbandry; nothing could be done for want of rain: they covered their heads; as before; [See comments on Jer 14:3].

y “confracta”, Schmidt; “attritam”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Prophet had said, that though the whole common people were sent to the waters, yet none would be found. He now adds the same firing respecting the husbandmen. Ashamed, he says, shall be the husbandmen, for the ground shall be turned into dust, and God will pound it small. When the heavens supply moisture, the earth retains thus its solid character; but in a great heat we see the earth dissolving into dust, as though it was pounded in a mortar.

So he says, On account of the chapt ground, because there is no rain, ashamed shall be the husbandmen, and they shall cover their heads; for sorrow shall not only seize on them, but also fin them with such shame as to make them to shun the light and the sight of men. These things were intended for the same purpose, even to make the Jews to know that they were not by chance deprived of water, but because God had cursed their land, so that it yielded them no water even for the common wants of nature. It follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(4) The ground is chapt.The word is so vivid as describing the long fissures of the soil in a time of drought that one admits with reluctance that no such meaning is found in the Hebrew word, which simply means is struck with terror. The translators apparently followed Luther, who gives lechzetlanguishes for thirst, gapes open with exhaustion, and so applied to the earth, is cracked or chapt.

As the gates in Jer. 14:2 stood for the people of the city, so the ground stands here as in visible sympathy with the tillers of the soil, the plowmen of the next clause.

They covered their heads.There is a singular, almost awful, pathos in the iteration of this description. Cities and country alike are plunged into the utter blackness of despair.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. Chapped Rather, dismayed, or confounded. The Hebrew, more frequently than western languages, speaks of inanimate things as animate.

The earth Rather, the land.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments