How long will the land mourn and the vegetation of every field dry up? Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, animals and birds are swept away. For they say, "He does not see our future."

and her gates lament and mourn. Ravaged, she will sit on the ground."

Therefore the land will mourn, and all who live there will languish, along with the wild animals of the field and the birds of the air. Even the fish in the sea will disappear.

"The fields lie in ruins and the ground is dried up. Indeed, the grain is ruined, the new wine has evaporated, and the olive oil has run out.

The gates

"The earth dries up and withers; the world languishes and fades away; heaven fades away, along with the earth.

The land mourns and wastes away; Lebanon feels ashamed and withers. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves."

They

Because my people are crushed, I'm crushed. I mourn, and dismay overwhelms me.

Jerusalem's gates collapsed to the ground; he destroyed and broke the bars of her gates. Both king and prince have gone into captivity. There is no instruction, and the prophets receive no vision from the LORD.

Now their faces are blacker than coal; they are unrecognized in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it has become dry like a stick.

Our skin blisters as from an oven, due to ravaging blasts of the famine.

The people are terrified in their presence; every face grows pale.

The cry

Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "I'm about to bring disaster on them from which they won't be able to escape. They'll cry out to me, but I won't listen to them.

Let a cry be heard from their houses because you have brought a raiding party against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have set traps for my feet.

God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The people who did not die were afflicted with tumors of the groin, and the cry of the town went up to heaven.

"About this time tomorrow I'll send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him as Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel. He'll deliver my people from the control of the Philistines, because I've seen the suffering of my people and because their cry has come up to me."

As a result, the cries of the poor have reached him and he has heard the cry of the afflicted.

For the vineyard of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden in which he delights. He looked for justice, but saw only bloodshed; he searched for righteousness, but heard only an outcry!

My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent to Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction.

Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,' says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

General references

That is why the heavens keep withholding dew from you, and the earth withholds her fruit.