1The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah about the drought.
2Judah mourns, and her gates waste away. Her people sit in black grief on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3Their great men send their servants for water. They come to the wells and find no water. They come back with their jars empty. They are ashamed and confused, and they cover their heads.
4The ground is cracked open, because no rain has fallen on the land. So the plowmen are ashamed, and they cover their heads.
5Even the deer gives birth in the field and leaves her young, because there is no grass.
6The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They gasp for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is nothing green.
7LORD, though our sins speak against us, act for the sake of your name. We have turned away from you many times. We have sinned against you.
8You are the hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble. Why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveller who stops only for one night?
9Why should you be like a man taken by surprise, like a strong man who cannot save? Yet you, LORD, are among us, and we are called by your name. Do not leave us.
10This is what the LORD says about this people: "They have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet at home. So the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their sin and punish them for the wrong they have done."
11Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the good of this people."
12"When they fast, I will not listen to their cry. When they offer a burnt offering and a grain offering, I will not accept them. Instead I will destroy them by the sword, by famine, and by disease."
13Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, look, the prophets say to them, 'You will not see the sword, and you will not have famine. I will give you sure peace in this place.'"
14Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets speak lies in my name. I did not send them. I did not command them. I did not speak to them. They tell you a false vision, empty fortune-telling, a worthless thing, and the lies of their own hearts."
15So this is what the LORD says about the prophets who speak in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, 'Sword and famine will not come to this land': Those very prophets will be destroyed by sword and famine.
16And the people they speak to will be thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. I will pour their own wickedness out on them.
17So you shall say this word to them: 'Let my eyes run with tears night and day, and let them not stop. For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great wound, with a very heavy blow.
18"If I go out into the field, look, those killed by the sword. If I go into the city, look, those sick with famine. Yes, both prophet and priest wander into a land they do not know.'"
19Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate Zion? Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and no good came; we looked for a time of healing, and look, there is trouble.
20LORD, we admit our wickedness, and the sin of our fathers. We have sinned against you.
21Do not hate us, for the sake of your name. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.
22Are there any among the worthless gods of the nations that can bring rain? Can the skies give showers by themselves? Are you not the one who does it, LORD our God? So we will wait for you, for you have made all these things.