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.

22  Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,

^w‘The dead bodies of men shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

^xlike sheaves after the reaper,

and none shall gather them.’”