1. The word of the Lord that was given to Jeremiah concerning the famine.
2. Judah mourns, and its gates languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads.
4. Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5. Even the hind calved in the field and forsook it, because there was no grass.
6. And the wild asses stood in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed because there was no grass.
7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for thy name’s sake; for our rebellions have multiplied; we have sinned against thee.
8. O the hope of Israel, the Keeper thereof in time of trouble, why should thou be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?
9. Why should thou be as a speechless man as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; do not leave us.
10. Thus hath the Lord said unto this people, Thus have they loved to move, nor have they refrained their feet; therefore the Lord does not have them in his will; he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
11. Then the Lord said unto me, Do not pray for this people for their good.