Jeremiah

¹ That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in regard to the drought:

² And her gates languish; They sit on the ground in mourning, And the outcry of Jerusalem has gone up.

³ They have come to the trenches and found no water. They have returned with their vessels empty; They have been put to shame and dishonored, And they cover their heads.

⁴ For there has been no rain on the land, The farmers have been put to shame; They have covered their heads.

⁵ Because there is no grass.

⁶ They pant for air like jackals; Their eyes fail For there is no vegetation.

⁷ O Yahweh, act for Your name’s sake! Truly our acts of faithlessness have been many; We have sinned against You.

⁸ Its Savior in time of distress, Why are You like a sojourner in the land Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent to lodge for the night?

⁹ Like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You are in our midst, O Yahweh, And we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!”

¹⁰ Thus says Yahweh to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.”

¹¹ So Yahweh said to me, “Do not pray for the good of this people.

¹² When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.”

¹³ But, “Ah, Lord Yahweh!” I said, “Behold, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’”

¹⁴ Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a vision of lies, divination, futility, and the deception of their own hearts.

¹⁵ Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by that sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!

¹⁶ The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their own evil on them.

¹⁷ ‘Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day, And let them not cease, For the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered with a mighty shattering, With a sorely sick wound.

¹⁸ Behold, those slain with the sword! Or if I enter the city, Behold, diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest Have gone around as merchants in the land that they do not know.’”

¹⁹ Or have You loathed Zion? Why have You stricken 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!

²⁰ The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.

²¹ Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory; Remember and do not break Your covenant with us.

²² Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O Yahweh our God? Therefore we hope in You, For You are the one who has done all these things.