Mourning over Judah

17 This is what the Lord of Armies says:

Consider, and summon the women who mourn;(A)
send for the skillful women.
18 Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
our eyelids be soaked with weeping.
19 For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
How devastated we are.
We are greatly ashamed,(B)
for we have abandoned the land;
our dwellings have been torn down.

20 Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to[a] the words from his mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament
and one another a dirge,
21 for Death(C) has climbed through our windows;
it has entered our fortresses,
cutting off children from the streets,
young men from the squares.

22 “Speak as follows: ‘This is what the Lord declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field,(D) like newly cut grain(E) after the reaper with no one to gather it.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:20 Lit Your ears must receive

The People Mourn in Judgment

17 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Consider and call for the mourning women to come;
    send for the skilled women to come;(A)
18 let them quickly raise a dirge over us,
    so that our eyes may run down with tears
    and our eyelids flow with water.(B)
19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    “How we are ruined!
    We are utterly shamed
because we have left the land,
    because they have cast down our dwellings.”(C)

20 Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
    and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a dirge
    and each to her neighbor a lament.(D)
21 “Death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces
to cut off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.”(E)
22 Speak! Thus says the Lord:
“Human corpses shall fall
    like dung upon the open field,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
    and no one shall gather them.”(F)

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