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.
21 For death has crept in through our windowsand has entered our mansions.It has killed off the flower of our youth:Children no longer play in the streets,and young men no longer gather in the squares.
22 This is what the lord says:“Bodies will be scattered across the fields like clumps of manure,like bundles of grain after the harvest.No one will be left to bury them.”
23 This is what the lord says:“Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,or the powerful boast in their power,or the rich boast in their riches.