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17 Yahweh of Armies says,

“Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come.
    Send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18 Let them make haste
    and take up a wailing for us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
    and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion,
    ‘How we are ruined!
We are greatly confounded
    because we have forsaken the land,
    because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

20 Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women.
    Let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters wailing.
    Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
21 For death has come up into our windows.
    It has entered into our palaces
to cut off the children from outside,
    and the young men from the streets.

22 Speak, “Yahweh says,

“‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field,
    and as the handful after the harvester.
    No one will 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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