16. I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17. Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18. Let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How are we ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20. Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.
21. For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
22. Speak, “Yahweh says, “‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and no one will gather them.’”
23. Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
24. But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,” says Yahweh.
25. “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh:
26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”