¹¹ “And I will rebuke ^(E)the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
Says the Lord of hosts;
¹² “And all nations will call you blessed,
For you will be ^(F)a delightful land,”
Says the Lord of hosts.

³ A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like ^(A)the Garden of Eden before them,
^(B)And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.

^8 (A)Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For ^(B)the husband of her youth.
^9 (C)The grain offering and the drink offering
Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;
The priests ^(D)mourn, who minister to the Lord.
¹⁰ The field is wasted,
^(E)The land mourns;
For the grain is ruined,
^(F)The new wine is dried up,
The oil fails.

^11 (G)Be ashamed, you farmers,
Wail, you vinedressers,
For the wheat and the barley;
Because the harvest of the field has perished.
^12 (H)The vine has dried up,
And the fig tree has withered;
The pomegranate tree,
The palm tree also,
And the apple tree—
All the trees of the field are withered;
Surely ^(I)joy has withered away from the sons of men.

^15 (N)Alas for the day!
For ^(O)the day of the Lord is at hand;
It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶ Is not the food ^(P)cut off before our eyes,
^(Q)Joy and gladness from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seed shrivels under the clods,
Storehouses are in shambles;
Barns are broken down,
For the grain has withered.
¹⁸ How ^(R)the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are restless,
Because they have no pasture;
Even the flocks of sheep ^[a]suffer punishment.

^4 (A)What the chewing ^[a]locust left, the ^(B)swarming locust has eaten;
What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;
And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

^11 (A)My eyes fail with tears,
My ^[a]heart is troubled;
^(B)My ^[b]bile is poured on the ground
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
Because ^(C)the children and the infants
Faint in the streets of the city.

¹² They say to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they swoon like the wounded
In the streets of the city,
As their life is poured out
In their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ How shall I ^(D)console^[c] you?
To what shall I liken you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is spread wide as the sea;
Who can heal you?

¹⁴ Your ^(E)prophets have seen for you
False and deceptive visions;
They have not ^(F)uncovered your iniquity,
To bring back your captives,
But have envisioned for you false ^(G)prophecies and delusions.

¹⁵ All who ^[d]pass by ^(H)clap their hands at you;
They hiss ^(I)and shake their heads
At the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that is called
^(J)‘The perfection of beauty,
The joy of the whole earth’?”

^16 (K)All your enemies have opened their mouth against you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth.
They say, ^(L)“We have swallowed her up!
Surely this is the ^(M)day we have waited for;
We have found it, ^(N)we have seen it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what He ^(O)purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy to ^(P)rejoice over you;
He has exalted the ^[e]horn of your adversaries.

¹⁸ Their heart cried out to the Lord,
“O wall of the daughter of Zion,
^(Q)Let tears run down like a river day and night;
Give yourself no relief;
Give ^[f]your eyes no rest.

¹⁹ “Arise, ^(R)cry out in the night,
At the beginning of the watches;
^(S)Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.
Lift your hands toward Him
For the life of your young children,
Who faint from hunger ^(T)at the head of every street.”

²⁰ “See, O Lord, and consider!
To whom have You done this?
^(U)Should the women eat their offspring,
The children ^[g]they have cuddled?
Should the priest and prophet be slain
In the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ “Young^(V) and old lie
On the ground in the streets;
My virgins and my young men
Have fallen by the ^(W)sword;
You have slain them in the day of Your anger,
You have slaughtered and not pitied.

²² “You have invited as to a feast day
^(X)The terrors that surround me.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
There was no refugee or survivor.
^(Y)Those whom I have borne and brought up
My enemies have ^(Z)destroyed.”