Leaders, listen to this message! Listen to me, all you people who live in the land. Has anything like this happened before during your lifetime? No. Did anything like this happen during your fathers' lifetime? No.
You will tell these things to your children, and your children will tell their children, and your grandchildren will tell the people of the next generation.
What the cutting locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten. And what the swarming locust has left, the hopping locust has eaten. And what the hopping locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten!
A powerful nation came to attack my land. Its soldiers were too many to count. Its weapons were as sharp as a lion's teeth and as powerful as a lion's jaw.
The vines have become dry, and the fig tree is dying. All the trees in the field— the pomegranate, the palm, and the apple—have withered. And happiness among the people is dead.
Priests, put on your sackcloth and cry loudly. Servants of the altar, cry loudly. Servants of my God, you will sleep in your sackcloth because there will be no more grain and drink offerings in God's Temple.
Tell the people that there will be a special time of fasting. Call them together for a special meeting. Bring the leaders and everyone living in the land together at the Temple of the Lord your God, and pray to the Lord.