"Hear this, you elders! Listen, all of you residents of the land! Has there ever been anything like this during your lifetime, or even when your ancestors were alive?

Whatever the devouring locust left behind the locust swarm has consumed! Whatever the locust swarm has left behind, the young locust has consumed! Whatever the young locust has left behind, the ravaging locust has consumed!"

"Wake up, you drunkards! Cry aloud and howl, you wine drinkers, because your supply of new wine has been snatched from you.

Indeed, a nation has invaded my land it is strong and its population is too large to count with teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.

It has made My vine (My people) a waste and object of horror,
And splintered and broken My fig tree.
It has stripped them completely bare and thrown them away;
Their branches have become white.

Wail like a virgin [bride] clothed with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth [who has died].

"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.

Be dismayed, you farmers! Cry aloud, you vintners, for the wheat and barley, because the harvest in your fields has been lost.

The grapevine is shriveled and the fig tree is withered, along with the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the apple tree and all of the cultivated trees. Truly, joy has evaporated from Adam's children."

Our food has been cut off right before our eyes! There is no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God!

Seeds shrivel within their furrows, the storehouses lie empty, and granaries stand in ruins because the grain has withered.

To you, LORD, I cry out, because fire has devoured the open pastures, and has set all the cultivated trees ablaze.

The livestock also cries out to you, because their water sources have evaporated and because fire has consumed the open pastures.

A day of doom and gloom, a day of clouds and shadows like the dawn spreads out to cover the mountains a people strong and robust. Never has there been anything like it, neither will anything follow to compare with it, even through the lifetime of generation upon generation."

Before them a fire devours,
And behind them a flame burns;
Before them the land is like the Garden of Eden,
But behind them a desolate wilderness;
And nothing at all escapes them.

And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it?

Even now—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
turn to Me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

I will remove the one from the north far from you. I will drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. His stench will rise up as a foul smell." Indeed, the Lord has accomplished great things.

Do not fear, my land! Rejoice and be glad, because the Lord has accomplished great things!

Do not fear, beasts of the field,
For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green,
For the tree has borne its fruit,
The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full.

And so be glad, children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, because he has given you the right amount of early rain, and he will cause the rain to fall for you, both the early rain and the later rain as before.

“And I will compensate you for the years
That the swarming locust has eaten,
The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust—
My great army which I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, and will be fully satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has performed wonders specifically for you. And my people will never be ashamed.

And everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD will be delivered. For as the LORD has said, "In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, the survivors whom the LORD is calling.'"

I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them.

and I will sell your sons and daughters into the control of the people of Judah. And they will sell them to the people of Sheba, a country far away." Indeed, the LORD has spoken."

I will acquit their bloodguilt that has not yet been acquitted. For the LORD lives in Zion!"