³ The nobles send their servants for water;
    they go to the cisterns
    but find no water.^(A)
They return with their jars unfilled;
    dismayed and despairing,
    they cover their heads.^(B)

¹² They say to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”^(A)
as they faint like the wounded
    in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away^(B)
    in their mothers’ arms.^(C)