^(D)“The Lord is my helper;
    ^(E)I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

¹⁵ Alas for the day!
^(A)For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty^[a] it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
^(B)joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

^17 (C)The seed shrivels under the clods;^[b]
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because ^(D)the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How ^(E)the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.^[c]

¹⁹ To you, ^(F)O Lord, I call.
^(G)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(H)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field ^(I)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(J)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

^2 (A)“Judah mourns,
    and ^(B)her gates languish;
her people lament on the ground,
    and ^(C)the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
³ Her nobles send their servants for water;
    they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
    they return with their vessels empty;
they are ^(D)ashamed and confounded
    and ^(E)cover their heads.
⁴ Because of the ground that is dismayed,
    since there is ^(F)no rain on the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
    they cover their heads.
⁵ Even ^(G)the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
    because there is no grass.
^6 (H)The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
    they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
    because there is no vegetation.

¹² “I, I am he ^(A)who comforts you;
    who are you that you are afraid of ^(B)man who dies,
    of the son of man who is made ^(C)like grass,