Jeremiah 4:19–31

¹⁹My bowels! my bowels! I am in travail! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace: for thou hearest, my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the clamour of war. ²⁰Destruction upon destruction is proclaimed; for the whole land is wasted: suddenly are my tents laid waste, my curtains, in a moment. ²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? ²²For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no intelligence; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. ²³I beheld the earth, and lo, it was waste and empty; and the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills shook violently. ²⁵I beheld, and lo, man was not, and all the fowl of the heavens were fled. ²⁶I beheld, and lo, the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down, before Jehovah, before his fierce anger. ²⁷For thus saith Jehovah: The whole land shall be a desolation; but I will not make a full end. ²⁸For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back therefrom. ²⁹At the noise of the horsemen and bowmen, every city fleeth; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken and no man dwelleth therein. ³⁰—And thou, wasted one, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rendest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair: thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life. ³¹For I hear a voice, as of a woman in travail, anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion: she moaneth, she spreadeth forth her hands, saying, Woe unto me! for my soul faileth because of murderers.