Mourning over Judah

17 This is what the Lord of Armies 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 be 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 words from 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 declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field,(D) like newly cut grain(E) after the reaper with no one to gather it.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:20 Lit Your ears must receive

17 The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:
Pay attention!
Summon the women who mourn,
        let them come;
    send for those best trained,
        let them come.
18 Hurry!
Let them weep for us
    so that our eyes fill up with tears
        and water streams down.
19 The sound of sobbing
    is heard from Zion:
    “We’re devastated!
    We’re so ashamed!
    We have to leave the land
        and abandon our homes!”
20 Women, hear the Lord’s word.
    Listen closely to the word
    from his mouth:
        teach your daughters to mourn;
        teach each other to grieve.
21 Death has climbed through our windows;
    it has entered our fortresses
        to eliminate children from the streets,
        the youth from the squares.
22 Declare what the Lord says:
Dead bodies will lie
    like dung on the fields,
    like bundles of grain after the harvest,
        with no one to pick them up.

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