¹¹ As water evaporates from a lake
    and a river disappears in drought,

⁵ The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields.
    The riverbed will be parched and dry.

¹⁸ Why then does my suffering continue?
    Why is my wound so incurable?
Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook,
    like a spring that has gone dry.”

¹⁵ My brothers, you have proved as unreliable as a seasonal brook
    that overflows its banks in the spring
¹⁶     when it is swollen with ice and melting snow.
¹⁷ But when the hot weather arrives, the water disappears.
    The brook vanishes in the heat.
¹⁸ The caravans turn aside to be refreshed,
    but there is nothing to drink, so they die.