Jeremiah 9:12-22

12Who is the 1wise person who 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 destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through? 13The Lord said, “Because they have 4abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14but have 5followed the stubbornness of their heart and the 6Baals, 7as their 8fathers taught them,” 15therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, 9I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them 10poisoned water to drink. 16I will also 11scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the 12sword after them until I have put an end to them.”

17This is what the Lord of armies says: “Consider and call for the 13mourning women, that they may come; And send for the 1415skillful women, that they may come!18Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us, So that our 16eyes may shed tears, And our eyelids flow with water.19For a voice of 17wailing is heard from Zion: ‘18How devastated we are! We are put to great shame, For we have 19abandoned the land Because they have torn down our homes.’”20Now hear the word of the Lord, you 20women, 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 21death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To eliminate the 22children from the streets, The young men from the public squares.22Speak, “This is what the Lord says: ‘The corpses of people will fall 23like dung on the open field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.’”