Eliyahu the Tishbi, who was of the foreigners of Gil`ad, said to Ach'av, As the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
She said, As the LORD your God lives, I don't have a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the jar: and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the Kohen go about in the land, and have no knowledge.
so that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!
What the swarming arbeh has left, the great arbeh has eaten. What the great arbeh has left, the khagav has eaten. What the khagav has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of `Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
I will cause it to go out,* says the LORD of Armies, *and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.*
If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name,* says the LORD of Armies, *then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.*
so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.