For now ¹  you have become like these streams that are no help; ²  you see a terror, ³  and are afraid.

For ¹  I am like a wineskin ²  dried up in smoke. ³  I do not forget your statutes.

The grass dries up, the flowers wither, when the wind sent by the Lord ¹  blows on them. Surely humanity ²  is like grass.

ח (Khet) The Lord’s loyal kindness ¹  never ceases; ²  his compassions ³  never end.

Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions ¹  like a stream that never dries up.

So God sent ¹  a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.

But when the sun came up, they were scorched, and because they did not have sufficient root, they withered.

Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. ¹  Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited.

For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ¹  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

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.

Far from where people live ¹  he sinks a shaft, in places travelers have long forgotten, ²  far from other people he dangles and sways. ³ 

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 

Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon? Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow? ¹ 

ח (Khet) Now their appearance ¹  is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up, like tree bark.

Give them, O Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse! ¹ 

The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ²  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

Therefore you ¹  will have to say farewell ²  to Moresheth Gath. The residents ³  of Achzib ⁴  will be as disappointing as a dried up well ⁵  to the kings of Israel. ⁶ 

For all flesh ¹  is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass; ²  the grass withers and the flower falls off,

I for my part ¹  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ²  You will sow your seed in vain because ³  your enemies will eat it. ⁴ 

Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw.