16. I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
17. Thus says the Lord of hosts:“Consider and call for the mourning women,That they may come;And send for skillful wailing women,That they may come.
18. Let them make hasteAnd take up a wailing for us,That our eyes may run with tears,And our eyelids gush with water.
19. For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:‘How we are plundered!We are greatly ashamed,Because we have forsaken the land,Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”
20. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;Teach your daughters wailing,And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.
21. For death has come through our windows,Has entered our palaces,To kill off the children— no longer to be outside!And the young men— no longer on the streets!