1. The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
2. Judah mourns, and its gates languish; they mourn for the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
3. And their nobles have sent their little ones for water: they came to the cisterns, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
4. Because the ground is parched, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6. And the wild donkeys did stand in the high places, they sniffed at the wind like jackals; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
7. O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
8. O the hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?
9. Why should you be as a man confused, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.
10. Thus says the LORD unto this people,
11. Then said the LORD unto me,