17 This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Consider now! Call for the wailing women(A) to come;
    send for the most skillful of them.
18 Let them come quickly
    and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
    and water streams from our eyelids.(B)
19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ‘How ruined(C) we are!
    How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
    because our houses are in ruins.’”

20 Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord;
    open your ears to the words of his mouth.(D)
Teach your daughters how to wail;
    teach one another a lament.(E)
21 Death has climbed in through our windows(F)
    and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
    and the young men(G) from the public squares.

22 Say, “This is what the Lord declares:

“‘Dead bodies will lie
    like dung(H) on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
    with no one to gather them.’”

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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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