“For this the earth shall mourn
And the heavens above be dark,
Because I have spoken, I have purposed,
And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

How long is the land to mourn
And the vegetation of the countryside to wither?
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it,

Animals and birds have been snatched away,

Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.”

And her

gates will lament and mourn,

And deserted she will sit on the ground.

Therefore the land mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,
And also the fish of the sea disappear.

The field is ruined,

The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,
The new wine dries up,
Fresh oil fails.

The gates

The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.

The land mourns and pines away,

Lebanon is shamed and withers;

Sharon is like a desert plain,

And Bashan and Carmel lose their foliage.

They

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

Her gates have sunk into the ground,
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The law is no more.
Also, her prophets find

No vision from the Lord.

Their appearance is blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin is shriveled on their bones,
It is withered, it has become like wood.

Our skin has become as hot as an oven,
Because of the burning heat of famine.

Before them the people are in anguish;
All faces turn pale.

The cry

Therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry to Me, yet I will not listen to them.

May an outcry be heard from their houses,
When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;

For they have dug a pit to capture me

And hidden snares for my feet.

So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And the men who did not die were smitten with tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

“About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over My people Israel; and he will deliver My people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have regarded My people, because their cry has come to Me.”

So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,
And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted—

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel
And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.

And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts;

General references

Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce.