I will stop the insects so they won’t eat your crops. The grapes won’t fall from your vines before they are ready to pick,” says the Lord All-Powerful.
“ ‘I will take away their crops, says the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree. Even the leaves will dry up and die. I will take away what I gave them.’ ”
The vines have become dry, and the fig trees are dried up. The pomegranate trees, the date palm trees, the apple trees— all the trees in the field have died. And the happiness of the people has died, too.
What the cutting locusts have left, the swarming locusts have eaten; what the swarming locusts have left, the hopping locusts have eaten, and what the hopping locusts have left, the destroying locusts have eaten.
I will force the army from the north to leave your land and go into a dry, empty land. Their soldiers in front will be forced into the Dead Sea, and those in the rear into the Mediterranean Sea. Their bodies will rot and stink. The Lord has surely done a wonderful thing!”
Wild animals, don’t be afraid, because the open pastures have grown grass. The trees have given fruit; the fig trees and the grapevines have grown much fruit.
“Though I sent my great army against you— those swarming locusts and hopping locusts, the destroying locusts and the cutting locusts that ate your crops— I will pay you back for those years of trouble.
“I made your crops die from disease and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards got larger, locusts ate your fig and olive trees. But still you did not come back to me,” says the Lord.
Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns.
I have called for a time without rain on the land, and on the mountains, and on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, the plants which the earth produces, the people, the farm animals, and all the work of your hands.”
“They will plant their seeds in peace, their grapevines will have fruit, the ground will give good crops, and the sky will send rain. I will give all this to the people who are left alive.