Locust plague and drought

2 Hear this, elders,

pay attention, all inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days,

or in the days of your ancestors?

3 Recount it to your children;

let your children tell it to their children,

and their children to the generation that follows.

4 That which the cutting locust has left,

the swarming locust has eaten,

that which the swarming locust has left,

the hopping locust has eaten,

and that which the hopping locust has left,

the destroying locust has eaten.

5 Awake, drunkards, and weep,

and wail, all drinkers of wine;

the new wine is cut off from your mouth.

6 For a nation has come up on my land,

powerful, and numberless;

its teeth are the teeth of a lion,

and its jaw-teeth are like those of a lioness.

7 It has laid waste my vines,

and barked my fig tree;

it has peeled and cast it away,

bleached are the branches.

8 Wail as a bride, clad in sack-cloth,

for the husband of her youth.

9 Cut off are the cereal and drink-offerings

from the house of the Lord;

in mourning are the priests,

who minister at the Lord’s altar.

10 The fields are blasted,

the land is in mourning,

for ruined is the corn,

the new wine fails

and the oil is dried up.

11 Be dismayed, farmers;

wail, vine-dressers.

For the wheat and the barley;

for the harvest is lost from the fields.

12 The vine fails to bear fruit,

and the fig tree is drooping;

the pomegranate, palm, and apple,

all the trees of the field are dried up.

The people’s joy withers.

13 Put on sackcloth, and beat your breasts, priests;

wail, ministers of the altar;

come, lie all night in sack-cloth, ministers of God;

for cereal-offering and drink-offering

are cut off from the house of your God.

14 Sanctify a fast,

summon an assembly,

gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land

into the house of the Lord your God,

cry to the Lord:

15 Alas for the day!

Near at hand is the day of the Lord,

and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

16 Is not food cut off

from before us,

gladness and joy

from the house of our God?

17 The grains shrivel under their hoes,

the storehouses are desolate,

the barns broken down,

for the corn is withered.

18 How the herds of cattle bellow in distress,

for they have no pasture!

The flocks of sheep are forlorn.

19 To you, the Lord, I cry.

For fire has devoured

the pastures of the wilderness,

and flame has scorched

all the trees of the field.

20 The wild animals also look up to you longingly,

for the water-courses are dried up,

and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

2 Blow a horn in Zion,

sound an alarm in my holy mountain,

let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord comes,

for near is 2 the day of darkness and gloom,

the day of cloud and thick darkness!

Like the light of dawn scattered over the mountains,

a people great and powerful;

its like has not been from of old,

neither will be any more after it,

even to the years of coming ages.

3 Before them the fire devours,

and behind them a flame burns;

like the garden of Eden is the land before them,

and after them it is a desolate desert,

nothing escapes them.

4 Their appearance is as the appearance of horses,

and like horsemen they charge.

5 Like the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains they leap,

like the crackle of flames devouring stubble,

like a mighty people preparing for battle.

6 Peoples are in anguish before them,

all faces grow pale.

7 Like mighty men they run,

like warriors they mount up a wall,

they march each by himself,

they break not their ranks,

8 none jostles the other.

They march each in his path.

They fall upon the weapons without breaking.

9 They scour the city, they run on the wall.

They climb up into the houses.

Like a thief they enter the windows.

10 Earth trembles before them,

the sky quakes,

the sun and moon become dark,

and the stars withdraw their shining;

11 and the Lord utters his voice before his army,

for his host is exceedingly great.

Mighty is he who performs his word.

For great is the day of the Lord,

it is terrible, who can endure it?

12 But now this is the message of the Lord:

Turn to me with all your heart,

and with fasting and weeping and mourning,

13 rend your hearts and not your garments,

and turn to the Lord your God;

for he indeed is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and plenteous in love,

and relents of the evil.

14 Who knows but he will turn and relent,

and leave a blessing behind him,

a cereal and drink-offering for the Lord your God.

15 Blow a horn in Zion,

sanctify a fast, summon an assembly,

16 gather the people, make holy the congregation,

assemble the elders,

gather the children,

and the infants at the breast.

Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber,

and the bride from her bridal tent.

17 Between the porch and the altar,

let the priests, the ministers of the Lord weep aloud,

let them say:

Spare, the Lord, your people.

Make not your heritage an object of reproach,

for the heathen to mock them.

Why should it be said among the nations, “Where is their God?”