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

⁴ What ^(f)the cutting locust left,
    ^(g)the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    ^(h)the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    ⁽ⁱ⁾the destroying locust has eaten.

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

⁸ Lament like a virgin^{[a] (p)}wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
^9 (q)The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
^(r)The priests mourn,
    ^(s)the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are destroyed,
    ^(t)the ground mourns,
because ^(u)the grain is destroyed,
    ^(v)the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

^11 (w)Be ashamed,^[b] O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    ^(x)because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹² The vine dries up;
    ^(y)the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and ^(z)gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

^13 (aa)Put on sackcloth and lament, ^(ab)O priests;
    ^(ac)wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, ^(ad)pass the night in sackcloth,
    ^(ae)O ministers of my God!
^(af)Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

^14 (ag)Consecrate a fast;
    ^(ah)call a solemn assembly.
Gather ^(ai)the elders
    and ^(aj)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!
^(ak)For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty^[c] it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
^(al)joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

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

¹⁹ To you, ^(ap)O Lord, I call.
^(aq)For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
^(ar)and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field ^(as)pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
^(at)and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.