The Great Drought

14 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

2 Judah mourns

and her gates languish;

they lie in gloom on the ground,

and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

3 Her nobles send their servants for water;

they come to the cisterns,

they find no water,

they return with their vessels empty.

They are ashamed and dismayed

and cover their heads,

4 because the ground is cracked.

Because there has been no rain on the land

the farmers are dismayed;

they cover their heads.

5 Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn

because there is no grass.

6 The wild asses stand on the bare heights,a

they pant for air like jackals;

their eyes fail

because there is no herbage.

7 Although our iniquities testify against us,

act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;

our apostasies indeed are many,

and we have sinned against you.

8 O hope of Israel,

its savior in time of trouble,

why should you be like a stranger in the land,

like a traveler turning aside for the night?

9 Why should you be like someone confused,

like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?

Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,

and we are called by your name;

do not forsake us!

10 Thus says the Lord concerning this people:

Truly they have loved to wander,

they have not restrained their feet;

therefore the Lord does not accept them,

now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins.

11 The Lord said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I do not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I consume them.