If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there is blight [or] mildew, arbeh [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be;
They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
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.
I will restore to you the years that the swarming arbeh has eaten, the great arbeh, the khagav, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
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 struck you with blight and mildew many times in your gardens and your vineyards; and your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming arbeh devoured: yet you haven't returned to me,* says the LORD.
You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you aren't filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.*
*You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?* says the LORD of Armies, *Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.