14:2 “The people of Judah are in mourning.
The people in her cities are pining away.
They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. 1
Cries of distress come up to me 2 from Jerusalem. 3
14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.
They go to the cisterns, 4 but they do not find any water there.
They return with their containers 5 empty.
Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. 6
14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked 7
because there has been no rain in the land.
The farmers, too, are dismayed
and bury their faces in their hands.
14:5 Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn 8 in the field
because there is no grass.
14:6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops
and pant for breath like jackals.
Their eyes are strained looking for food,
because there is none to be found.” 9