Jeremiah 4:19–31

¹⁹My 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.

²⁰Disaster follows hard on disaster,

the whole land is laid waste.

Suddenly my tents are destroyed,

my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long must I see the standard,

and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For my people are foolish,

they know me not;

they are stupid children,

they have no understanding.

They are skilled in doing evil,

but how to do good they know not.”

²³I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;

and to the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,

and all the hills moved to and fro.

²⁵I looked, and lo, there was no man,

and all the birds of the air had fled.

²⁶I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,

and all its cities were laid in ruins

before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

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

²⁸For this the earth shall mourn,

and the heavens above be black;

for I have spoken, I have purposed;

I 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 no man dwells in them.

³⁰And you, O desolate one,

what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,

that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,

that you enlarge your eyes with paint?

In vain you beautify yourself.

Your lovers despise you;

they seek your life.

³¹For I heard a cry as of a woman in travail,

anguish as of one bringing forth her first child,

the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands,

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