Jeremiah 9:12-22

12Who is the 1wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom 2the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? 3Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13The Lord said, “Because they have 4forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14but have 5walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the 6Baals, as their 7fathers taught them,” 15therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, 8I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them 9poisoned water to drink. 16I will 10scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the 11sword after them until I have annihilated them.”

17Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider and call for the 12mourning women, that they may come; And send for the 1314wailing women, that they may come!18Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, That our 15eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.19For a voice of 16wailing is heard from Zion, ‘17How are we ruined! We are put to great shame, For we have 18left the land, Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”20Now hear the word of the Lord, O you 19women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a dirge.21For 20death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To cut off the 21children from the streets, The young men from the town squares.22Speak, “Thus says the Lord, ‘The corpses of men will fall 22like dung on the open field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.’”