Jeremiah 5:24 describes a people who never stop to consider that the LORD is the one who sends rain and brings the harvest, so they never think to fear and honor him for it. The prophet Jeremiah is speaking on God’s behalf to the people of Judah, pointing out a failure of the heart that shows up in ordinary life.
They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
Jeremiah 5:24 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 5:24 Means
The verse begins with the phrase “they don’t say in their heart,” which describes an inward failure rather than an outward one. The people are not necessarily denying God in public. Their hearts simply never arrive at the thought that God deserves their awe. The word “fear” here means reverent respect and trust, not terror.
The people are meant to recognize the LORD as the source of the seasonal rains, both the early rains that start the planting and the later rains that bring the crop to full growth. They are also meant to see him as the one who keeps the harvest weeks on schedule. Life in an agricultural land depended on these things, and the verse asks why the people do not connect their food with the God who provides it.
The verse does not promise that good weather or good crops follow from reverence, and it does not set up a simple formula of obedience and reward. It describes what God is owed and what the people overlook. The lesson is about recognition and gratitude, not about buying blessings.
The Context of Jeremiah 5:24
The book of Jeremiah is traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, who ministered in Jerusalem and Judah in the years before the Babylonian exile, roughly the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC. He addressed a people who had turned to idols and social injustice while keeping up the outward forms of religion. His audience was the people of Judah, with particular attention to the leaders and the wealthy.
The verse sits in a passage where God first asks the people whether they fear him at all, pointing to the sea that stays within the boundaries he set. Verses 25 through 27 then describe the sins that have “withheld good” from them, including wicked men who trap others and houses full of deceit that have made them rich. Read this way, the failure to fear God in verse 24 is not a private oversight. It is the root of the injustice that follows, and the people’s silence about God’s provision reflects a heart that has stopped looking to him.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 5:24
Psalm 65:9
You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.
(WEB)
This psalm celebrates God’s care for the earth, saying he visits the land and waters it, and it pairs his provision with the grain that feeds people. It shows the same connection between God’s care in creation and the gratitude he deserves from those he feeds.
Acts 14:17
Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
(WEB)
Paul tells the people of Lystra that God has not left himself without witness, because he does good and gives rain and fruitful seasons. The verse carries the same theme of God’s kindness in nature, and it calls people to turn toward him.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 5:24
Lord, you give the rain in its season and keep the harvest on its appointed schedule. Forgive me for the times I have taken your provision for granted or spoken as if the good things in my life came from my own effort. Turn my heart toward you, so that my daily life is shaped by reverence and gratitude. Help me to trust your faithfulness in the ordinary and in the hard seasons alike. Amen.
