¹The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the words of the droughts.

²Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they are dark with mourning, down to the land, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

³Their mighty ones sent their little ones to the water; they came to the cisterns and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty, ashamed and humiliated, and covered their heads.

⁴Because of the ground, which is shattered—for no rain has come in the land—the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

⁵For even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons it, because there is no grass.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for breath like jackals; their eyes fail, for there is no herbage.

⁷Though our guilt testifies against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name; for our turnings away are many; against you we have sinned.

⁸O hope of Israel, his deliverer in a time of distress, why are you like a sojourner in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to spend the night.

⁹Why are you like a man astounded, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet you are in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called over us; do not abandon us.

¹⁰This is what Yahweh said to this people: They have loved to wander like this; they have not restrained their feet; and Yahweh has not accepted them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins.

¹¹Yahweh said to me: Do not pray on behalf of this people for good.

¹²When they fast, I am not listening to their cry; and even if they offer up a burnt offering and a grain offering, I am not accepting them; for by the sword and by famine and by pestilence I am bringing them to an end.

¹³I said: Alas, O Adonai Yahweh, look, the prophets are saying to them: You will not see sword, and famine will not happen to you; for I will give you sure wholeness in this place.

¹⁴Yahweh said to me: The prophets prophesy falsehood in my name. I did not send them, and I did not command them, and I did not speak to them. A vision of falsehood, divination, a worthless idol, and the deceit of their own heart—they are prophesying these to you.

¹⁵Therefore this is what Yahweh says about the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them, and they say, Sword and famine will not happen in this land: by the sword and by famine those prophets will be finished.

¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, with no one to bury them: them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters; and I will pour out their evil over them.

¹⁷You shall say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and by day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a great breaking, a blow that has left her very sick.

¹⁸If I go out to the field, look: those slain by the sword! And if I enter the city, look: the diseases of famine! For both prophet as well as priest go about to a land—and they do not know.

¹⁹Have you really rejected Judah? Or has your being loathed Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We waited eagerly for wholeness, but there is no good; for a time of healing, and look—terror!

²⁰We know, O Yahweh, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.

²¹Do not spurn us, for the sake of your name; do not treat with contempt the throne of your weightiness; remember, do not break your covenant with us.

²²Is there, among the vapors of the nations, any that send rain? Or do the skies give showers? Is it not you, Yahweh our God? So we wait for you; for you have made all these things.