Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 14:4

"Because of the ground which is cracked, for that no rain hath been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads." — Jeremiah 14:4 (ASV)

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

As the “gates” in Jeremiah 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.