Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the earth. Was this in your days, and if in the days of your fathers?

Concerning it recount to your sons, and your sons to their sons, and their sons to another generation.

Awake, ye intoxicated, and weep; and wail, all ye drinking wine, on account of the new wine, for it was cut off from your mouth.

He set my vine for destruction, and my fig tree for breaking: he stripped off its covering and cast away; and its shoots were whitened.

The husbandmen were ashamed; wail, ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley, for the harvest of the field perished.

The vine was dried up, and the fig tree languished; the pomegranate, also the palm tree and the apple tree; all the trees of the field were dried up, for joy was dried up from the sons of man.

Be ye girded and lament, ye priests: wail, ye, serving the altar: come in, pass the night in sackcloth, ye serving God: for the gift and the libation were withheld from the house of your God.

Consecrate a fast., call an assembly, gather together the old men, all the inhabitants of the land to the house of Jehovah your God, and cry to Jehovah.

Was not the food cut off before our eyes, from the house of our God, joy and gladness?

The kernels died beneath the clods, the treasures were laid waste, the garners were pulled down, for the grain was dried up.

How the beasts groaned! the herds of oxen wept, for no pasture to them; also the flocks of sheep were laid waste.

Also the beasts of the field will look up to thee: for the channels of waters were dried up, and the fire devoured the habitations of the desert.

They shall run as strong men; as men of war they shall come up upon the wall; and they shall go each in his ways; they shall not change their paths.

The earth was moved before his face; the heavens trembled: the sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars took away their shining:

And also now, says Jehovah, Turn back even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping and with wailing.

And rend your heart and not your garments, and turn back to Jehovah your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, slow of anger and of much kindness, and lamenting on account of the evil.

Who shall know he will turn back, and lamenting and leaving a blessing after him, a gift and a libation to Jehovah your God?

Between the porch and to the altar the priests serving Jehovah shall weep, and they shall say, Spare, O Jehovah, thy people, and thou wilt not give thine inheritance to reproach for the nations to rule over them: wherefore shall they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

And Jehovah will answer and say to his people, Behold me sending to you the grain and the new wine, and the new oil; and ye were satisfied with it: and I will no more give you a reproach among the nations.

Ye sons of Zion rejoice and be glad in Jehovah your God; for he gave to you the early rain for justice, and he will bring down to you the rain, the early and latter rain in the first.

And the threshing-floors were filled with grain, and the wine-vats overflowed with new wine and new oil.

And eating, ye ate and were satisfied, and ye praised the name of Jehovah your God who did wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed forever.

And ye knew that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am Jehovah your God, and none else: and my people shall not be ashamed forever.

And it was after this I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters prophesied, your old men shall dream your young men shall see visions.

And also what are ye to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the circuits of Philistia? do ye requite to me a recompense? and if ye recompense to me, swiftly and speedily I will turn back your recompense upon your head;

For ye took my silver and my gold, and my delights of good things ye brought to your temples.

Behold me raising them up from the place where ye sold them there, and I turned back your recompense upon your head:

And I sold your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they sold them to the Sabeans to a nation far off: for Jehovah spake.

Call ye this among the nations: Consecrate war; rouse up the strong ones, they shall draw near, all the men of war shall come up.

Beat your plough-shares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears: the weak shall say, I am strong.

The sun and the moon were darkened, and the stars took away their shining.

And ye knew that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem was holy, and strangers shall no more pass through her.