Jeremiah 9:10-21

10‘I will weep for the mountains. I will cry for the fields in the wilderness. There is no grass for the animals to eat. Nobody travels through those places. There is no sound of cows and sheep. The birds and the wild animals have all disappeared.’

11The Lord replied, ‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of stones. Only wild animals will live there. I will destroy the towns of Judah so that nobody can live in them.’

12I said, ‘Nobody is wise enough to understand this. The Lord has not told anyone, so that he can explain it to others. Why has our land become like a desert so that nobody travels through it? Does anyone know the answer?’

13The Lord answered, ‘It is because my people have not accepted the laws that I gave to them. They have not obeyed me. They have not lived in the way that I told them to live.

14Instead, they have done whatever they wanted to do. They have served the gods of Baal, as their ancestors taught them to do.’

15So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: ‘I will punish my people with trouble and pain. I will give them food that is bitter. They will drink water that is poison.

16I will send them away as prisoners. They will live among foreign nations that they had never heard about. Their ancestors had not heard about them either. I will send enemies to chase after them until I have destroyed them.’

17The Lord Almighty said this: ‘Think about what is happening! Call the women who weep at funerals. Bring those women who know what to do.’

18‘Yes, tell them to come quickly to sing funeral songs for us. Then tears will pour from our eyes, and we will not stop weeping.

19Listen to the people who are crying in Jerusalem! They say, “A terrible thing has happened to us! We are very ashamed! Our enemies have destroyed our houses. Now we have to leave our land.” ’

20‘Now hear the Lord's message, you women. Listen to what he says to you. Teach your daughters how to weep. Teach each other this funeral song:

21“Death has come to visit us! It has come into our strong houses. Death has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who meet together in the streets.”