Jeremiah 4:19–31

Anguish over Judah’s Desolation

^19dMy anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!

Oh the walls of my heart!

My heart is beating wildly;

I cannot keep silent,

for I hear the sound of the trumpet,

the alarm of war.

^20eCrash follows hard on crash;

the whole land is laid waste.

^fSuddenly my tents are laid waste,

my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long must I see the standard

and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For ^gmy people are foolish;

they know me not;

they are stupid children;

they have no understanding.

^hThey are ‘wise’—in doing evil!

But how to do good they know not.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was ⁱwithout form and void;

^jand to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I looked on ^kthe mountains, and behold, they were quaking,

and all the hills moved to and fro.

^25lI looked, and behold, there was no man,

and all the birds of the air had fled.

²⁶I looked, and behold, the ^mfruitful land was a desert,

and all its cities were laid in ruins

before the Lord, before ⁿhis fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; ^oyet I will not make a full end.

^28p“For this the earth shall mourn,

^qand the heavens above be dark;

for I have spoken; I have purposed;

^rI have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

²⁹At the noise of horseman and archer

every city takes to flight;

they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;

all the cities are forsaken,

and ^sno man dwells in them.

³⁰And you, O desolate one,

what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,

^tthat you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

^uthat you enlarge your eyes with paint?

In vain you beautify yourself.

^vYour lovers despise you;

they seek your life.

³¹For I heard ^wa cry as of a woman in labor,

anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,

the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

^xstretching out her hands,

“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”