1: 2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
1: 3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
1: 4 That which the 1palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.
1These four insects are probably different kinds of locusts, or locusts in different stages of growth.
1: 5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and wail, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
1: 6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the jaw-teeth of a lioness.
1: 7 He hath laid my vine waste, and 2barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it 3away; the branches thereof are made white.
2Or, broken
3Or, down;
1: 8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
1: 9 The meal-offering and the drink-offering are cut off from the house of Jehovah; the priests, Jehovah’s ministers, mourn.
1: 10 The field is laid waste, the land mourneth; for the grain is destroyed, the new wine is 4dried up, the oil languisheth.
4Or, ashamed,
1: 11 5Be confounded, O ye husbandmen, wail, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field is perished.
5Or, The husbandmen are confounded, the vinedressers wail,
1: 12 The vine is 6withered, 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 7withered away from the sons of man.
6Or, ashamed (twice) And in vs. 17.
7Or, ashamed of the sons of men.
1: 13 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.
1: 14 Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the 8old men and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah.
8Or, elders
1: 15 Alas for the day! for the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction from 9the Almighty shall it come.
9Hb. Shaddai
1: 16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, yes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
1: 17 The 10heifers 11decay in their stalls; the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the grain is withered.
10So 4QXIIc Aram. (Sept., Vg.). Massoretic reads seeds shrivel (or, rot) under their clods;
11So 4QXIIc Vg. Massoretic reads shrivel
1: 18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yes, the flocks of sheep 12are made desolate.
12Or, suffer punishment.
1: 19 O Jehovah, to thee do I cry; for the fire hath devoured the 13pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
13Or, folds And in vs. 20.
1: 20 Yes, the beasts of the field pant unto thee; for the water brooks are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
