My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹  They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests ²  because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

ב (Bet) The precious sons of Zion were worth their weight in gold – Alas! – but now they are treated like ¹  broken clay pots, made by a potter. ² 

ט (Tet) Those who died by the sword ¹  are better off than those who die of hunger, ²  those who ³  waste away, ⁴  struck down ⁵  from lack of ⁶  food. ⁷ 

When I turn the land of Egypt into desolation and the land is destitute of everything that fills it, when I strike all those who live in it, then they will know that I am the Lord.’

Therefore the land will mourn, and all its inhabitants will perish. ¹  The wild animals, ²  the birds of the sky, and even the fish in the sea will perish.

Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, ¹  but he does not recognize it! His head is filled with gray hair, but he does not realize it!

Be distressed, ¹  farmers; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the field has perished.

Do not fear, wild animals! ¹  For the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass. Indeed, the trees bear their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest. ² 

I struck all the products of your labor ¹  with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ ²  says the Lord.

I am about to discipline your children ¹  and will spread offal ²  on your faces, ³  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

Then I will stop the plague ¹  from ruining your crops, ²  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ² 

They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”

For false messiahs ¹  and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

For false messiahs ¹  and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect.

But when John rebuked Herod ¹  the tetrarch ²  because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, ³  and because of all the evil deeds ⁴  that he had done,

for each tree is known ¹  by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered ²  from thorns, nor are grapes picked ³  from brambles. ⁴ 

Then ¹  he said, ‘I ²  will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

Yet many of the crowd ¹  believed in him and said, “Whenever the Christ ²  comes, he won’t perform more miraculous signs than this man did, will he?” ³ 

And I know that his commandment is eternal life. ¹  Thus the things I say, I say just as the Father has told me.” ²