10  “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,

and a lamentation for cthe pastures of the wilderness,

dbecause they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard;

eboth the birds of the air and the beasts

have fled and are gone.

11  fI will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

ga lair of jackals,

hand I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

12 iWho is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined jand laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13 And the Lord says: k“Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, 14 but lhave stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. 15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: mBehold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them npoisonous water to drink. 16 oI will scatter them among the nations pwhom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will qsend the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”

17  Thus says the Lord of hosts:

r“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skillful women to come;

18  let them make haste sand raise a wailing over us,

tthat our eyes may run down with tears

and our eyelids flow with water.

19  For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

u‘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,

vcutting off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.