2Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 3Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 4That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. 5Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail {howl}, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6For a nation is come up upon My land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7He hath laid My vine waste, and barked My fig tree; he hath made it completely {clean} bare, and cast it away; its {the} branches {thereof} are made white. 8Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9The meal offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. 10The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the grain is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11Be ye ashamed, O ye farmers {husbandmen}; wail {howl}, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

13Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; wail {howl}, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; for the meal offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God. 14Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD, your God, and cry unto the LORD. 15Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered. 18How do the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19O LORD, to Thee will I cry; for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. 20The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee; for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.