1. The Lord said to me concerning the drought,
2. “Judah is in mourning;its cities are dying,its people lie on the ground in sorrow,and Jerusalem cries out for help.
3. The rich people send their servants for water;they go to the cisterns,but find no water;they come back with their jars empty.Discouraged and confused,they hide their faces.
4. Because there is no rainand the ground is dried up,the farmers are sick at heart;they hide their faces.
5. In the field the mother deerabandons her newborn fawnbecause there is no grass.
6. The wild donkeys stand on the hilltopsand pant for breath like jackals;their eyesight fails thembecause they have no food.
7. My people cry out to me,‘Even though our sins accuse us,help us, Lord, as you have promised.We have turned away from you many times;we have sinned against you.
8. You are Israel's only hope;you are the one who saves us from disaster.Why are you like a stranger in our land,like a traveller who stays for only one night?
9. Why are you like someone taken by surprise,like a soldier powerless to help?Surely, Lord, you are with us!We are your people;do not abandon us.’ ”
10. The Lord says about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”
11. The Lord said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people.
12. Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”
13. Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”
14. But the Lord replied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.