Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 9:17

"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come:" — Jeremiah 9:17 (ASV)

Mourning women ... cunning women. —Eastern funerals were, and are, attended by mourners, chiefly women, hired for the purpose. Wailing was reduced to an art, and those who practiced it were cunning. There are the mourners who go about the streets (Ecclesiastes 12:5), those who are skillful of lamentation (Amos 5:16), those who mourned for Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:18), those who wept and wailed greatly in the house of Jairus (Mark 5:38). They are summoned to the funeral, not of a friend or neighbor, but of the nation.