Jeremiah 9:17-22

New International Reader's Version

“Here is something I want you to think about.
    Send for the women who mourn for the dead.
    Send for the most skilled among them.”

¹⁸ Let them come quickly
    and weep for us.
Let them cry until tears flow from our eyes.
    Let them weep until water pours out of our eyes.
¹⁹ People are heard weeping in Zion.
    They are saying, “We are destroyed!
    We are filled with shame!
We must leave our land.
    Our houses have been torn down.”

²⁰ You women, hear the Lord’s message.
    Listen to what he’s saying.
Teach your daughters how to mourn for the dead.
    Teach one another a song of sadness.
²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows.
    It has entered our forts.
Death has removed the children from the streets.
    It has taken the young men out of the market.

“ ‘Dead bodies will be like human waste
    lying in the open fields.
They will lie there like grain
    that is cut down at harvest time.
    No one will gather them up.’ ”