The earth ¹  dries up ²  and withers, the world shrivels up and withers; the prominent people of the earth ³  fade away.

The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. ¹ 

“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 

I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint. ¹ 

The new wine dries up, the vines shrivel up, all those who like to celebrate ¹  groan.

Therefore the land will mourn, and all its inhabitants will perish. ¹  The wild animals, ²  the birds of the sky, and even the fish in the sea will perish.

O God, you cause abundant showers to fall ¹  on your chosen people. ²  When they ³  are tired, you sustain them, ⁴ 

כ (Kaf) I desperately long for ¹  your deliverance. I find hope in your word.

ח (Khet) The Lord was determined to tear down Daughter Zion’s wall. He prepared to knock it down; ¹  he did not withdraw his hand from destroying. ²  He made the ramparts and fortified walls lament; together they mourned their ruin. ³ 

But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away ¹  because of the famine.

The land ¹  dries up ²  and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up ³  and decays. Sharon ⁴  is like the desert; ⁵  Bashan and Carmel ⁶  are parched. ⁷ 

The Lord supports ¹  him on his sickbed; you completely heal him from his illness. ² 

The crops of the fields ¹  have been destroyed. ²  The ground is in mourning because the grain has perished. The fresh wine has dried up; the olive oil languishes.

Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.

For the fields of Heshbon are dried up, as well as the vines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations trample all over its vines, which reach Jazer and spread to the desert; their shoots spread out and cross the sea.

If I ate my morsel of bread myself, and did not share any of it with orphans ¹  –

They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion. They will be radiant with joy ¹  over the good things the Lord provides, the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil, the young sheep and calves he has given to them. They will be like a well-watered garden and will not grow faint or weary any more.

“‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ¹  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ²  iniquities which are with them.

Have mercy on me, ¹  Lord, for I am frail! Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! ² 

The mother who had seven children ¹  will grow faint. All the breath will go out of her. ²  Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life. It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ³  She will suffer shame and humiliation. ⁴  I will cause any of them who are still left alive to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ⁵  says the Lord.