A RHAPSODY OF THE LOCUST PLAGUE i The Land Desolate and Mourning OLD MEN Hear this, ye old men, And give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land! Or in the days of your fathers? And let your children tell their children, And that which the locust hath left And that which the cankerworm hath left REVELLERS Awake, ye drunkards, and weep, Because of the sweet wine; For it is cut off from your mouth! His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And barked my fig tree: He hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; The branches thereof are made white. PRIESTS Lament like a virgin Girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth! The land mourneth; The new wine is dried up, The oil languisheth. HUSBANDMEN Be ashamed, O ye husbandmen, For the wheat, and for the barley ; For the harvest of the field is perished! And the fig tree languisheth; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, and the apple tree, PRIESTS Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, For the meal offering and the drink offering THE WHOLE PEOPLE Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the old men and all the inhabitants of the land unto the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD: Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand! come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? |