Jeremiah 4:19–31

Lament over Judah’s Devastation

^19aMy ¹soul, my soul! I am in anguish! ²Oh, my heart!

My ^bheart is pounding in me;

I cannot be silent,

Because ³you have heard, O my soul,

The ^csound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war.

^20aDisaster on disaster is proclaimed,

For the ^bwhole land is devastated;

Suddenly my ^ctents are devastated,

My curtains in an instant.

²¹How long must I see the standard

And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“^aFor My people are foolish,

They know Me not;

They are stupid children

And have no understanding.

They are shrewd to ^bdo evil,

But to do good they do not know.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was ^1a formless and void;

And to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were ^aquaking,

And all the hills ¹moved to and fro.

²⁵I looked, and behold, there was no man,

And all the ^abirds of the heavens had fled.

²⁶I looked, and behold, ¹the ^afruitful land was a wilderness,

And all its cities were pulled down

Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord,

“The ^awhole land shall be a desolation,

Yet I will ^bnot execute a complete destruction.

²⁸“For this the ^aearth shall mourn

And the ^bheavens above be dark,

Because I have ^cspoken, I have purposed,

And I will not ¹change My mind, nor will I turn from it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horseman and bowman ^aevery city flees;

They ^bgo into the thickets and climb among the rocks;

^cEvery city is forsaken,

And no man dwells in them.

³⁰And you, O desolate one, ^awhat will you do?

Although you dress in scarlet,

Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,

Although you ^benlarge your eyes with paint,

In vain you make yourself beautiful.

Your ^1clovers despise you;

They seek your life.

³¹For I heard a ¹cry as of a woman in labor,

The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,

The cry of the daughter of Zion ^agasping for breath,

^bStretching out her ²hands, saying,

“Ah, woe is me, for ³I faint before murderers.”