Therefore the land will mourn, And everyone who dwells therein will waste away. All living things in her, Even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; Yes, the fish of the sea also die.
"The land shall mourn ..." By metonymy, the whole people of Israel are those who shall mourn.  The inclusion of the lower creation in this mourning (the animals, birds, and fishes) merely emphasizes the extent and universality of the suffering; but there may also be a reference to the primeval curse of the ground "for Adam's sake"  (Genesis 3:17-21), with a strong intimation that it will be continued and perhaps intensified by the kind of behavior that marks the response of Israel to the love of God. God's curse upon the earth because of human sin would also inevitably involve the lower creation.  Given thought that the inclusion of the lower order of creation here was for the purpose of "representing the severity of the judgment in its totality."[10]