1That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah concerning the droughts:
2Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they sit in mourning on the ground, and the outcry of Jerusalem goes up.
3Their nobles send their young ones for water; they come to the cisterns, they find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed and disgraced, and they cover their heads.
4Because of the ground that is cracked, for there has been no rain on the land, the plowmen are ashamed; they cover their heads.
5For even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons her young, because there is no grass.
6And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail because there is no vegetation.
7Though our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name; for our backslidings are many; against you we have sinned.
8Hope of Israel, its savior in the time of distress, why should you be like a stranger in the land, and like a traveler who turns aside to spend the night?
9Why should you be like a man stunned, like a warrior who cannot save? Yet you are in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called over us; do not leave us.
10Thus says Yahweh to this people: So they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh has not accepted them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
11And Yahweh said to me: Do not pray for this people, for their good.
12When they fast, I will not listen to their cry; and when they offer up a burnt offering and a grain offering, I will not accept them; for by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence I am making an end of them.
13Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword, and famine will not come upon you; rather I will give you true peace in this place.’”
14And Yahweh said to me: The prophets are prophesying falsehood in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them, nor did I speak to them. A false vision and divination and worthlessness and the deceit of their own heart—these are what they prophesy to you.
15Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name—though I did not send them—and who say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land’: by the sword and by the famine those prophets shall come to their end.
16And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, with no one to bury them—they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters—and I will pour out on them their evil.
17And you shall say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is shattered with a great breaking, a very grievous blow.
18If I go out into the field, then behold, those slain by the sword; and if I enter the city, then behold, the diseases of famine. For both prophet and priest ply their trade in a land they do not know.
19Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We hoped for peace, but there was no good; and for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
20We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
21Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, do not break your covenant with us.
22Are there any among the worthless idols of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, Yahweh our God? So we hope in you, for it is you who have made all these things.
Open in the interactive reader →