That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah concerning the droughts:
Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they go black to the ground, and the outcry of Jerusalem has gone up.
And their nobles have sent their little ones for water; they came to the cisterns, they found no water; they returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and humiliated, and they covered their heads.
Because the ground is shattered, for there was no rain in the land, the plowmen are ashamed; they covered their heads.
For even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons, for there is no grass.
And wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they snuff the wind like jackals. Their eyes fail, for there is no herb.
If our iniquities testify against us, LORD, act for the sake of your name; for our turnings are many, against you we have sinned.
Hope of Israel, its savior in the time of distress, why are you like a sojourner in the land, and like a traveler turning aside to lodge?
Why are you like a man stunned, like a mighty man who cannot save? And you are in our midst, LORD, and your name is called over us. Do not leave us.
Thus says the LORD to this people: So they have loved to wander; they have not withheld their feet. And the LORD has no favor in them; now he will remember their iniquity and attend to their sins.
And the LORD said to me: Do not pray for this people for good.
When they fast, I will not hear their ringing cry; and when they offer up burnt offering and grain offering, I will not favor them; for by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence I am finishing them.
And I said: Ah, Lord GOD! See, the prophets are saying to them: You will not see the sword, and famine will not be yours; for peace of truth I will give you in this place.
And the LORD said to me: Falsehood the prophets are prophesying in my name. I did not send them and did not command them and did not speak to them. A vision of falsehood, and divination, and an idol, and the deception of their heart — that is what they are prophesying to you.
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I did not send them, and they say, Sword and famine will not be in this land: by sword and by famine those prophets will be finished.
And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem before the famine and the sword, with none to bury them — they, their wives and their sons and their daughters; and I will pour out on them their evil.
And you will say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not be still, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breaking, a blow very sick.
If I go out to the field — see, the slain of the sword! And if I come into the city — see, the sicknesses of famine! For even prophet, even priest, have gone about to a land they do not know.
A Prayer for Mercy
Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? Hope for peace — and there is no good; and for a time of healing — and see, panic!
We know, LORD, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn, for the sake of your name; do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember; do not break your covenant with us.
Are there among the breaths of the nations any that bring rain? Or do the heavens give showers? Are you not he, LORD our God? And we hope in you, for you have made all these.
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