ESV Study Bible | English Standard Version

 2 a Hear this, b you elders;
give ear, b all inhabitants of the land!
c Has such a thing happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
 3 d Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation.

 4 What e the cutting locust left,
f the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
g the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
h the destroying locust has eaten.

 5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and i wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of j the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
 6 For k a nation has come up against my land,
k powerful and beyond number;
l its teeth are lions' teeth,
and it has the fangs of a lioness.
 7 It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my m fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white.

 8 Lament like a virgin [1] n wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
 9 o The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
from the house of the Lord.
p The priests mourn,
p the ministers of the Lord.
10 The fields are destroyed,
q the ground mourns,
because r the grain is destroyed,
r the wine dries up,
the oil languishes.

11 s Be ashamed, [2] O tillers of the soil;
wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
t because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up;
u the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and v gladness dries up
from the children of man.

13 w Put on sackcloth and lament, p O priests;
x wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, w pass the night in sackcloth,
p O ministers of my God!
y Because grain offering and drink offering
are withheld from the house of your God.

14 z Consecrate a fast;
z call a solemn assembly.
Gather a the elders
and a all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.

15 Alas for the day!
b For the day of the Lord is near,
and as destruction from the Almighty [3] it comes.
16 Is not the food cut off
before our eyes,
c joy and gladness
from the house of our God?

17 d The seed shrivels under the clods; [4]
the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
because e the grain has dried up.
18 How f the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
even the flocks of sheep suffer. [5]

19 To you, g O Lord, I call.
h For fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness,
h and flame has burned
all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field i pant for you
because the water brooks are dried up,
h and fire has devoured
the pastures of the wilderness.