Deuteronomy 28:16

⁹You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. ¹⁰Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says the LORD of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. ¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says the LORD of Armies. ¹²“All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Armies.

¹¹My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My bile is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city. ¹²They ask their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom. ¹³What shall I testify to you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is as big as the sea. Who can heal you? ¹⁴Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment. ¹⁵All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?” ¹⁶All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.” ¹⁷The LORD has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries. ¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let your eyes rest. ¹⁹Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. ²⁰“Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? ²¹“The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied. ²²“You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of the LORD’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.

⁸Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! ⁹The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD’s house. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn. ¹⁰The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. ¹¹Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. ¹²The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. ¹³Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, ^[+] for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house. ¹⁴Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD. ¹⁵Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ¹⁶Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. ¹⁸How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

²²Thus the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation, an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today.

⁴What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.

²If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart.

³A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.

⁹“You looked for much, and, behold, ^[+] it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. ¹¹I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”

³³The LORD’s curse is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the righteous.

⁶Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. ⁷The new wine mourns. The vine languishes. All the merry-hearted sigh. ⁸The mirth of tambourines ceases. The sound of those who rejoice ends. The joy of the harp ceases. ⁹They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it. ¹⁰The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in. ¹¹There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. ¹²The city is left in desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.