Jeremiah 9:17-22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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)
Jeremiah 9:17-22
Common English Bible
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.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible