17 Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Consider and call for the amourning women, that they may come;

And send for the 1bwailing women, that they may come!

18 “Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,

That our aeyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

19 “For a voice of awailing is heard from Zion,

‘bHow are we ruined!

We are put to great shame,

For we have cleft the land,

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”

20 Now hear the word of the Lord, O you awomen,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a dirge.

21 For adeath has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the bchildren from the streets,

The young men from the town squares.

22 Speak, “Thus says the Lord,

‘The corpses of men will fall alike dung on the open field,

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’ ”