2Hear this, O elders;

give ear, all inhabitants of the land!

Has such a thing happened in your days

or in the days of your ancestors?*

3Tell your children of it,

and let your children tell their children,

and their children another generation.*

4What the cutting locust left,

the swarming locust has eaten;

what the swarming locust left,

the hopping locust has eaten;

and what the hopping locust left,

the destroying locust has eaten.*

5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep,

and wail, all you wine drinkers,

over the sweet wine,

for it is cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation has invaded my land,

powerful and innumerable;

its teeth are lions’ teeth,

and it has the fangs of a lioness.*

7It has laid waste my vines

and splintered my fig trees;

it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;

their branches have turned white.*

8Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth

for the husband of her youth.*

9The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off

from the house of the Lord.

The priests mourn,

the ministers of the Lord.*

10The fields are devastated,

the ground mourns,

for the grain is destroyed,

the wine dries up,

the oil fails.*

11Be dismayed, you farmers;

wail, you vinedressers,

over the wheat and the barley,

for the crops of the field are ruined.*

12The vine withers;

the fig tree droops.

Pomegranate, palm, and apple—

all the trees of the field are dried up;

surely, joy withers away

among the people.*

13Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests;

wail, you ministers of the altar.

Come, pass the night in sackcloth,

you ministers of my God!

Grain offering and drink offering

are withheld from the house of your God.*

14Consecrate a fast;

call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders

and all the inhabitants of the land

to the house of the Lord your God,

and cry out to the Lord.*

15Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is near,

and as destruction from the Almightya it comes.*

16Is not the food cut off

before our eyes,

joy and gladness

from the house of our God?*

17The seed shrivels under the clods;b

the storehouses are desolate;

the granaries are ruined

because the grain has withered.

18How the animals groan!

The herds of cattle wander about

because there is no pasture for them;

even the flocks of sheep are perishing.*

19To you, O Lord, I cry,

for fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

and flames have burned

all the trees of the field.*

20Even the wild animals cry to you

because the watercourses are dried up,

and fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness.*