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“And the fir trees (doe) gave birth to the field, and left their fruit, as if there were no grass. Onagri (wild donkeys) stasha on... the paths, sweeping within themselves the wind like a serpent” (Jer. 14:5–6). Jeremiah predicts famine and thirst for the idolatrous Jews, which Moses had previously threatened. This disaster befell them under Zedekiah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem suffered grievously from hunger and thirst, for the rains from heaven had ceased, the land was desolate and thirsty for water. As an example, the Prophet shows two kinds of wild animals. They are easy to run, and although they are tormented by hunger and thirst and cannot find food anywhere, they rush everywhere with all the speed and lightness of their feet. “And the trees,” says the prophet, “gave birth in the field, and left their fruit,” because they are tormented by hunger, and they run away to look for food for themselves. “And onagri stasha on... the paths” along which waters flowed from the springs, but dried up and disappeared along the paths of their flow; or “stasha on ... paths,” because rushing along rough and obstinate paths to find water, they did not find it, and inhaled cool air into themselves, wanting to refresh themselves in their thirst. “I will not be like a stranger ... to the earth.” This is the prayer of Jeremiah. He prays to God not to turn away from the people who chose for Himself from the ancient generations to be a beloved people above all the earthly ones nations, and did not become for him, as it were, a stranger who does not pay attention to the sorrows of the inhabitants of the country through which he passes, and does not care to alleviate the sorrows of the suffering, either because he considers them strangers to himself, and at the end of the day he must leave them and move on, or because the traveler himself is often poor, meager and unable to provide help to those in need, “And like a traveler who retreats into the vitality.” You are not a traveler, You do not need to worry about a house where to spend the night, You have long lived on Mount Zion, from the day the church was created, you have been dwelling in Your tabernacle (Jer. 14:8). “And the Lord said to me: Do not pray for the good of this people” (Jer. 14:11). Since Jeremiah did not stop praying and prayed for the people, but accused the false prophets, and presented the sin of the people as less serious, saying: “False prophets are deceiving this foolish people,” the Lord does not accept his prayer and says that he will destroy the false prophets along with the wicked people. You might be interested in: