“Carefully consider and call for the ^(A)mourning women, that they may come;
And send for the ^[a](B)skillful women, that they may come!
¹⁸ Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,
That our ^(C)eyes may shed tears
And our eyelids flow with water.
¹⁹ For a voice of ^(D)wailing is heard from Zion,
‘^(E)How we are destroyed!
We are put to great shame,
For we have ^(F)left the land
Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
²⁰ Indeed, hear the word of Yahweh, O you ^(G)women,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a funeral lamentation.
²¹ For ^(H)death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To cut off the ^(I)infants from the streets,
The choice men from the open squares.
²² Speak, “Thus declares Yahweh,
‘The corpses of men will fall ^(J)like dung on the open field
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather them.’”