¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off
    before our very eyes?
Have not joy and gladness disappeared
    from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seed has shriveled under the clods;
    the storehouses are empty,
and the granaries are deserted
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How loudly the cattle groan!
    The herds of oxen are bewildered
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep are wasting away.