13. The Lord answered, “It is because the people of Judah stopped following my teachings. I gave them my teachings, but they refused to listen to me. They did not follow my teachings.
14. The people of Judah lived their own way. They were stubborn. They followed the false god Baal. Their fathers taught them to follow those false gods.”
15. So the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says, “I will soon make the people of Judah eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
16. I will scatter the people of Judah throughout other nations. They will live in strange nations that they and their fathers never knew about. I will send men with swords. They will kill the people of Judah. They will kill them until all the people are gone.”
17. This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Now think about these things! Call for the women who get paid to cry at funerals. Send for the people who are good at that job.
18. The people say, ‘Let those women come quickly and cry for us. Then our eyes will fill with tears that flow over our eyelids like streams of water.’
19. “The sound of loud crying is heard from Zion: ‘We are really ruined! We are so ashamed! We must leave our land, because our houses have been destroyed. Now our houses are only piles of rock.’”