6 For aa nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; bHis teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a1 fierce lion.
7 He has alaid waste My vine, And1 ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.
8aLament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For bthe husband of her youth.
9aThe grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the Lord; The priests bmourn, who minister to the Lord.
10 The field is wasted, aThe land mourns; For the grain is ruined, bThe new wine is dried up, The oil fails.
11aBe ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished.
12aThe vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree— All the trees of the field are withered; Surely bjoy has withered away from the sons of men.
Mourning for the Land
13aGird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.
14aConsecrate a fast, Call ba sacred assembly; Gather the elders Andcall the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the Lord your God, And cry out to the Lord.
15aAlas for the day! For bthe day of the Lordis at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.
virgin . . . for the husband—A virgin betrothed was regarded as married (Deuteronomy 22:23; Matthew 1:19). The Hebrew for "husband" is "lord" or "possessor," the husband being considered the master of the wife in the East.
of her youth—when the affections are strongest and when sorrow at bereavement is consequently keenest. Suggesting the thought of what Zion's grief ought to be for her separation from Jehovah, the betrothed husband of her early days (Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 16:8; Hosea 2:7; compare Proverbs 2:17; Jeremiah 3:4).
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