Return to the Lord and repent! ¹  Say to him: “Completely ²  forgive our iniquity; accept ³  our penitential prayer, ⁴  that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. ⁵ 

The seed is still in the storehouse, isn’t it? And the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not produced. Nevertheless, from today on I will bless you.’”

if I have eaten its produce without paying, ¹  or caused the death ²  of its owners, ³ 

You destroy their offspring ¹  from the earth, their descendants ²  from among the human race. ³ 

He handed the territory of nations over to them, and they took possession of what other peoples had produced, ¹ 

lest strangers devour ¹  your strength, ²  and your labor ³  benefit ⁴  another man’s house.

So I began to despair ¹  about all the fruit of ²  my labor ³  for which I worked so hard ⁴  on earth. ⁵ 

The Lover to His Beloved: Your stature ¹  is like a palm tree, ²  and your breasts are like clusters of grapes. ³ 

But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

“You are also to observe ¹  the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year ²  when you have gathered in ³  your harvest ⁴  out of the field.

Then the anger of the Lord will erupt ¹  against you and he will close up the sky ²  so that it does not rain. The land will not yield its produce, and you will soon be removed ³  from the good land that the Lord ⁴  is about to give you.

So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ¹  and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ²  They will make all the stones of the altars ³  like crushed limestone, and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ⁴ 

I do not want you to be unaware, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. ³ 

If you besiege a city for a long time while attempting to capture it, ¹  you must not chop down its trees, ²  for you may eat fruit ³  from them and should not cut them down. A tree in the field is not human that you should besiege it! ⁴ 

Beware that the heart of no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you turns away from the Lord our God today to pursue and serve the gods of those nations; beware that there is among you no root producing poisonous and bitter fruit. ¹ 

The manna stopped appearing the day they ate ¹  some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again. ² 

The fig tree has budded, the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance. Arise, come away my darling; my beautiful one, come away with me!”

O sky, rain down from above! Let the clouds send down showers ¹  of deliverance! Let the earth absorb it ²  so salvation may grow, ³  and deliverance may sprout up ⁴  along with it. I, the Lord, create it. ⁵ 

They will treat you with hatred, take away all you have labored for, ¹  and leave you naked and bare. Your nakedness will be exposed, just as when you engaged in prostitution and obscene conduct. ²