2Hear this, you aged ones, "" And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land, "" Has this been in your days? Or in the days of your fathers?

3Concerning it talk to your sons, "" And your sons to their sons, "" And their sons to another generation.

4What is left of the palmer-worm, the locust has eaten, "" And what is left of the locust, "" The cankerworm has eaten, "" And what is left of the cankerworm, "" The caterpillar has eaten.

5Awake, you drunkards, and weep, "" And howl all drinking wine, because of the juice, "" For it has been cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation has come up on My land, "" Strong, and there is no number, "" Its teeth [are] the teeth of a lion, "" And it has the jaw-teeth of a lioness.

7It has made My vine become a desolation, "" And My fig tree become a splinter, "" It has made it thoroughly bare, and has cast down, "" Its branches have been made white.

8Wail, as a virgin girds with sackcloth, "" For the husband of her youth.

9Present and drink-offering have been cut off from the house of YHWH, "" The priests have mourned, servants of YHWH.

10The field is spoiled, "" The ground has mourned, "" For the grain is spoiled, "" New wine has been dried up, oil languishes.

11Be ashamed, you farmers, "" Howl, vinedressers, for wheat and for barley, "" For the harvest of the field has perished.

12The vine has been dried up, "" And the fig tree languishes, "" Pomegranate, also palm, and apple-tree, "" All trees of the field have withered, "" For joy has been dried up from the sons of men.

13Gird, and lament, you priests, "" Howl, you servants of the altar, "" Come in, lodge in sackcloth, servants of my God, "" For present and drink-offering have been withheld from the house of your God.

14Sanctify a fast, proclaim a restraint, "" Gather [the] elderly [and] all those inhabiting the land, "" [Into the] house of your God YHWH,

15And cry to YHWH, “Aah! For the day! For [the] Day of YHWH [is] near, "" And it comes as destruction from [the] Almighty.

16Is food not cut off before our eyes? Joy and rejoicing from the house of our God?

17Scattered things have rotted under their clods, "" Storehouses have been desolated, "" Granaries have been broken down, "" For the grain has withered.

18How livestock have sighed! Perplexed have been droves of oxen, "" For there is no pasture for them, "" Also droves of sheep have been desolated.

19To You, O YHWH, I call, "" For fire has consumed lovely places of a wilderness, "" And a flame has set on fire all trees of the field.

20Also the livestock of the field long for You, "" For dried up have been streams of water, "" And fire has consumed lovely places of a wilderness!”