² Judah mourns,
    and her gates languish;
they lie in gloom on the ground,
    and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.^(B)
3 Her^[a] nobles send their servants for water;
    they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
    they return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and dismayed
    and cover their heads,^(C)
4 because the ground is cracked.
    Because there has been no rain on the land,
the farmers are dismayed;
    they cover their heads.^(D)
5 Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
    because there is no grass.
⁶ The wild asses stand on the bare heights;^[b]
    they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
    because there is no herbage.^(E)

⁷ And I also withheld the rain from you
    when there were still three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would be rained upon,
    and the field on which it did not rain withered;