Jeremiah 12:4

(Verse 4) How long will the earth mourn, and all the herbage of the region wither because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it? The animal and the bird have perished because they have said: Our last things will not be seen (or God will not see our ways). Whatever happens in the world, whether good or evil, happens not without the providence and chance of God, but by his judgment. The earth is now barren, the herbage dries up. Do you want to know the reason? Those who dwell in wickedness do this: so that the animals on the earth and the birds of the sky are consumed, because all these creatures were created for the use of humans: who have risen to such blasphemy as to say that God is ignorant of His own ways, and does not know what each individual will suffer. But what he says, 'How long?' signifies the enduring wrath of God, because the hearts of sinners were not inclined to repentance.

"How long shall the land mourn and the grass of the field be dried up from the wickedness of those who dwell in it?" As though of a land that has a soul, here too the prophet discourses, saying that the land mourns because of the wickedness of those who tread upon it. In the case of each one of us, then, the land either mourns or rejoices; for it either mourns "from the wickedness of those who dwell in it," or it rejoices from the virtue of those who dwell in it. In the case of each one of us, then, the very element either rejoices or mourns. And if the land, then perhaps the remaining elements too. I will say likewise both the water and the angel appointed over the water, that I may explain also the land that mourns or does not mourn; for it is not this body, "the land," that mourns "from those who dwell in it," but understand for me that, in addition to the ordering of the whole, a certain angel is appointed over the land, and another appointed over the waters, and another over the air, and a fourth over the fire. Thus ascend for me by reasoning to the whole ordering that is in animals, that is in plants, that is in the heavenly stars. A certain angel is appointed both over the sun, and another over the moon, and another also over the stars; these angels, then, with whom we are — insofar as we are of earth — either rejoice if we act righteously, or mourn over us when we sin. The land mourns, he says, from those who dwell in it. By homonymy he called the angel "land" with the very land itself. For just as "the handmade thing is accursed, both it and the one who made it" — not that the lifeless thing itself is accursed, but that which sits beside the lifeless image and passes under that name is called "handmade" — so also I will say that the angel appointed over land is called "land," and the angel appointed over water is called "water," according to what has been said: "The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid, the depths were troubled by the multitude of the sound of the waters, the clouds gave a voice, for indeed your arrows pass through."