Jeremiah 9:10-22

10“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning,

Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

And the sound of the livestock is not heard;

Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.

11“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

A haunt of jackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through? ¹³The Lord said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, ¹⁴but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink. ¹⁶I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”

¹⁷This is what the Lord of armies says:

“Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come;

And send for the skillful women, that they may come!

18“Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us,

So that our eyes may shed tears,

And our eyelids flow with water.

19“For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:

‘How devastated we are!

We are put to great shame,

For we have abandoned the land

Because they have torn down our homes.’ ”

20Now hear the word of the Lord, you women,

And let your ears receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.

21For death has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To eliminate the children from the streets,

The young men from the public squares.

22Speak, “This is what the Lord says:

‘The corpses of people will fall like dung on the open field,

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’ ”