9. Because of these things shall I not punish them?” declares Yahweh, “On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge?
10. For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And the sounds of cattle are not heard, from the birds of heaven to the animals they have fled, they are gone.
11. And I will make Jerusalem as heaps of ruins, a lair of jackals, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitants.
12. Who is the wise man that can understand this? And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed? It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through.”
13. And Yahweh said, “Because of their forsaking my law that I set before them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it,
14. but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors taught them.”
15. Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Look, I am feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison,
16. and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors, and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end.”
17. Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come, and for the skillful women, so that they come.
18. And let them hasten, and let them lift up wailing over us, so that our eyes may melt with tears, and our eyelids may flow with water.
19. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How we are devastated! We are very ashamed because we have left the land, because they have overthrown our dwelling places.’
20. For hear, O women, the word of Yahweh, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters a lamentation, and each woman her neighbor a lament.
21. For death has come into our windows, it has entered into our fortresses, to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the public squares.