Jeremiah 9:17-22

New Century Version

“Now, think about these things!
    Call for the women who cry at funerals to come.
    Send for those women who are good at that job.
¹⁸ Let them come quickly
    and cry loudly for us.
Then our eyes will fill with tears,
    and streams of water will flow from our eyelids.
¹⁹ The sound of loud crying is heard from Jerusalem:
    ‘We are truly ruined!
    We are truly ashamed!
We must leave our land,
    because our houses are in ruins.’”

²⁰ Now, women of Judah, listen to the word of the Lord ;
    open your ears to hear the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to cry loudly.
    Teach one another a funeral song.
²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows
    and has entered our strong cities.
Death has taken away our children who play in the streets
    and the young men who meet in the city squares.

‘The dead bodies of people will lie
    in the open field like dung.
They will lie like grain a farmer has cut,
    but there will be no one to gather them.’”