<n id="1" /><p class="poetry">&#8220;Foreigners will take care of<n id="2" /> your sheep;p> <p class="poetry">foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards.p>

<p class="poetry">They are dismayed because the ground is cracked<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">because there has been no rain in the land.p> <p class="poetry">The farmers, too, are dismayedp> <p class="poetry">and bury their faces in their hands.p>

<p class="poetry">The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its townsp> <p class="poetry">as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen.p> <p class="poetry">I used you to smash governors and leaders.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Be distressed,<n id="1" /> farmers;p> <p class="poetry">wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley.p> <p class="poetry">For the harvest of the field has perished.p>

He built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns, for he owned many herds in the lowlands<n id="1" /> and on the plain. He had workers in the fields and vineyards in the hills and in Carmel,<n id="2" /> for he loved agriculture.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Because of Israel&#8217;s sins<n id="1" /> this is what the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One,<n id="2" /> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;In all the squares there will be wailing,p> <p class="poetry">in all the streets they will mourn the dead.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They will tell the field workers<n id="4" /> to lamentp> <p class="poetry">and the professional mourners<n id="5" /> to wail.p>