Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 444
432
IMMERSE
•
PROPHETS
The fields are ruined,
the land is stripped bare.
The grain is destroyed,
the grapes have shriveled,
and the olive oil is gone.
Despair, all you farmers!
Wail, all you vine growers!
Weep, because the wheat and barley—
all the crops of the field—are ruined.
The grapevines have dried up,
and the fig trees have withered.
The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees—
all the fruit trees—have dried up.
And the people’s joy has dried up with them.
Dress yourselves in burlap and weep, you priests!
Wail, you who serve before the altar!
Come, spend the night in burlap,
you ministers of my God.
For there is no grain or wine
to offer at the Temple of your God.
Announce a time of fasting;
call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Bring the leaders
and all the people of the land
into the Temple of the Lord your God,
and cry out to him there.
The day of the Lord is near,
the day when destruction comes from the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be!
Our food disappears before our very eyes.
No joyful celebrations are held in the house
of our God.
The seeds die in the parched ground,
and the grain crops fail.
The barns stand empty,
and granaries are abandoned.
How the animals moan with hunger!
The herds of cattle wander about confused,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep and goats bleat in misery.
1:10-18