⁵ Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?^(A)
Who will show sympathy toward you?^(B)
Who will turn aside
to ask about your well-being?
⁶ You have left me.”^(C)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“You have turned your back,
so I have stretched out my hand against you
and destroyed you.
I am tired^(D) of showing compassion.
⁷ I scattered them with a winnowing fork
at the city gates of the land.
I made them childless; I destroyed my people.
They would not turn from their ways.^(E)
8 I made their widows more numerous
than the sand of the seas.^(F)
I brought a destroyer at noon
against the mother of young men.
I suddenly released on her
agitation and terrors.
⁹ The mother of seven grew faint;^(G)
she breathed her last breath.
Her sun set while it was still day;
she was ashamed and humiliated.
The rest of them I will give over to the sword
in the presence of their enemies.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.