Joseph, as governor of the country, was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. When Joseph’s brothers came, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
“If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if blight comes, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; if an enemy of your people presses upon them in the land and at their gates; whatever plague or sickness there may be;
“If there is famine in the land or pestilence; or if blight comes, or mildew, or locusts swarm, or caterpillars; when their enemies besiege them at any of their gates; whatever plague or sickness there may be;
See, the Lord has a strong one, a mighty one, who, like an onslaught of hail, a destructive storm, Like a flood of water, great and overflowing, levels to the ground with violence;
So he poured out wrath upon them, his anger, and the fury of battle; It blazed all around them, yet they did not realize, it burned them, but they did not take it to heart.
The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: No more will I give your grain as food to your enemies; Nor shall foreigners drink the wine, for which you toiled.
Lord, do your eyes not search for honesty? You struck them, but they did not flinch; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return.
Though I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities, and made bread scarce in all your dwellings, Yet you did not return to me— oracle of the Lord.
And I have proclaimed a devastating heat upon the land and upon the mountains, Upon the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil, upon all that the ground brings forth; Upon human being and beast alike, and upon all they produce. Response of Leaders and People.
You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied; You have drunk, but have not become intoxicated; you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed; And the hired worker labors for a bag full of holes.
You expected much, but it came to little; and what you brought home, I blew away. Why is this?—oracle of the Lord of hosts— Because my house is the one which lies in ruins, while each of you runs to your own house.
what was your experience? When one went to a heap of grain for twenty ephahs, there were only ten; When one went to a vat to draw fifty ephahs, there were only twenty.
The Lord will strike you with consumption, fever, and inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, with blight and mildew, that will pursue you until you perish.