“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 Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us,
So 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 devastated we are!
We are put to great shame,
For we have ^(F)abandoned the land
Because they have torn down our homes.’”
²⁰ Now hear the word of the Lord, you ^(G)women,
And let your ears receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.
²¹ For ^(H)death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To eliminate the ^(I)children from the streets,
The young men from the public squares.
²² Speak, “This is what the Lord says:
‘The corpses of people will fall ^(J)like dung on the open field,
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather them.’”