10. I will weep for the mountainsand wail for the wilderness pastures.For they are desolate and empty of life;the lowing of cattle is heard no more;the birds and wild animals have all fled.
11. “I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the lord.“It will be a place haunted by jackals.The towns of Judah will be ghost towns,with no one living in them.”
12. Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the lord and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it?
13. The lord replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said.
14. Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them.
15. So now, this is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.
16. I will scatter them around the world, in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and even there I will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely.”
17. This is what the lord of Heaven’s Armies says:“Consider all this, and call for the mourners.Send for the women who mourn at funerals.
18. Quick! Begin your weeping!Let the tears flow from your eyes.
19. Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair,‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated!We must leave our land,because our homes have been torn down.’”
20. Listen, you women, to the words of the lord;open your ears to what he has to say.Teach your daughters to wail;teach one another how to lament.