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A Call to Repentance

13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, ministers of the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
    ministers of my God,
because the grain offering and the drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast,
    call a sacred assembly,
assemble the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

15 Alas, for the day!
    For the day of the Lord is near,
    and like devastation from the Almighty it comes.

16 Has not the food been cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?
17 The seeds have shriveled
    under their shovels,
the storehouses have been deserted;
    the granaries have been torn down,
    because the grain has dried up.
18 How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are confused,
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

19 To You, O Lord, I call,
    because fire has devoured the wild pastures,
    and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field long for You,
    because the streams of water have dried up,
    and fire has devoured the wild pastures.

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