Thomson(i)
1 There came also to Jeremias a word of the Lord concerning the drought.
2 Judea mourned and her gates were deserted: and darkness overspread the land and the cry of Jerusalem ascended.
3 When her nobles sent their underlings for water; they went to the wells and found no water and returned with their vessels empty.
4 A stop was put to the works of the field because there was no rain. The husbandmen were confounded; they covered their heads.
5 The hinds calved in the field and left their young because there was not a green plant.
6 The wild asses stood in the forests and snuffed up the wind: their eyes failed because there was no grass.
7 Our sins have risen up against us. O Lord, deal with us for Thine own sake: for our sins are many in Thy sight; for we have sinned against Thee.
8 Thou, O Lord, art the hope of Israel, and savest in time of troubles. Why art Thou become as a stranger in the land; as a traveller turning aside for a lodging?
9 Wilt Thou be lie a man asleep or like a head of a family who cannot save? as Thou, O Lord, art among us and we are called by Thy name, O! do not forget us.
10 Thus saith the Lord to this people: They have loved to wander and did not refrain, therefore God hath not prospered their ways, He will now remember their iniquity.
11 Then the Lord said to me, Pray not for the prosperity of this people;
12 for though they fast I will not hear their prayer; and though they offer whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them. For with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, I will utterly consume them.
13 Thereupon I said, O self-existent Lord! Behold their prophets prophesy and say, You shall not see the sword; nor shall there be famine among you. For I will give truth and peace in this land and in this very place.
14 Then the Lord said to me: These prophets prophesy falsehood in My name; I did not send them, nor command them, nor did I speak to them. Because they prophesy to you lying visions and divinations, and auguries, and the devices of their own hearts;
15 therefore thus saith the Lord concerning those prophets: Those who prophesy falsehoods in My name, and who say [though I did not send them], "There shall be no sword nor famine in this land," they shall die a direful death; and by famine these prophets shall be consumed.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy, with their wives and their sons and their daughters, shall, by reason of the sword and the famine, be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem; and there shall be none to bury them, when I pour out these evils on them.
17 Therefore thou shalt deliver to them this word: Collect tears for your eyes day and night and let them not fail; for with a bruise the daughter of My people is bruised, and the wound is exceedingly painful.
18 [p] If I go out into the field, behold the slain of the sword! and if I go into the city; behold the distress of famine! Seeing priest and prophet are gone to a land which they knew not:
19 hast Thou utterly rejected Juda and is Thy soul alienated from Sion? Why hast Thou smitten us, and there is no cure for us? We waited for peace, and there was no good; for a time of healing, and behold trouble!
20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our sins and the iniquities of our fathers; that we have sinned against Thee.
21 O be appeased for Thy name's sake. Destroy not the throne of Thy glory; remember, O dissolve not Thy covenant with us.
22 Is there any among the idols of the nations who can give rain? and if the heaven shed its abundance, art Thou not He who causeth it. Therefore we will wait on Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast done all these things