They did not destroy the peoples, As Jehovah commanded them,
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.
And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right;
Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
The vine is withered, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Gird yourselves (with sackcloth), and lament, ye priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meal-offering and the drink-offering are withholden from the house of your God.
Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men (and) all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, (yea), joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seeds rot under their clods; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.