1. The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2. Judah mourns,and the gates languish;they sit on the ground while mourning,and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.
3. Their nobles have sent their servants for water;they came to the cisterns and found no water.They returned with their vessels empty;they were ashamed and humiliated,and covered their heads.
4. Because the ground is chapped,for there was no rain in the earth,the plowmen were ashamed;they have covered their heads.
5. Indeed, the hind also calved in the fieldand abandoned her youngbecause there was no grass.
6. The wild donkeys stand in the high places;they pant for air like jackals;their eyes failbecause there is no grass.
7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,do it for Your name’s sake.Indeed, 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 who turns aside to pitch his tent for a night?
9. Why should You be as a man dismayed,as a mighty man who cannot save?Yet You, O Lord, are in our midst,and we are called by Your name.Do not forsake us!
10. Thus says the Lord to this people: Even so they have loved to wander;they have not restrained their feet.Therefore, the Lord does not accept them;He will now remember their iniquityand punish their sins.
11. Then the Lord said to me: Do not pray for the good of this people.
12. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer a burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.