17 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;send for the skillful women to come;
18 let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tearsand our eyelids flow with water.
19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are ruined!We are utterly shamed,because we have left the land,because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20 Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;teach to your daughters a lament,and each to her neighbor a dirge.
21 For death has come up into our windows;it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streetsand the young men from the squares.
22 Speak: “Thus declares the Lord, ‘The dead bodies of men shall falllike dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper,and none shall gather them.’”
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,