Add parallel Print Page Options

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)

Read full chapter

Mourning over Judah

17 This is what the Lord of Hosts 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 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 word of 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 says:

Human corpses will fall
like manure on the surface of the field,
like newly cut grain(D) after the reaper
with no one to gather it.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 9:20 Lit Your ears must receive