⁶ “Will not all these ^(A)take up a proverb against him,
And a taunting riddle against him, and say,
‘Woe to him who increases
What is not his—how long?
And to him who loads himself with ^[a]many pledges’?

“Consider and call for ^(A)the mourning women,
That they may come;
And send for skillful wailing women,
That they may come.
¹⁸ Let them make haste
And take up a wailing for us,
That ^(B)our eyes may run with tears,
And our eyelids gush with water.
¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How we are plundered!
We are greatly ashamed,
Because we have forsaken the land,
Because we have been cast out of ^(C)our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰ Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.
²¹ For death has come through our windows,
Has entered our palaces,
To kill off ^(D)the children—^[a]no longer to be outside!
And the young men—^[b]no longer on the streets!

¹⁰ I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And ^(A)for the ^[a]dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
^(B)Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.

^(A)“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,

“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
From the mountains of the east.
^(B)‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
And come, ^(C)denounce Israel!’