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

²⁰ Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
    and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a lament,
    and each to her neighbor a dirge.
²¹ For death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces,
^(E)cutting off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.
²² Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,
^(F)‘The dead bodies of men shall fall
    like dung upon the open field,
^(G)like sheaves after the reaper,
    and none shall gather them.’”