They will lament loudly over you and cry bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes;

Don’t spread the news in Gath! Don’t shed even a single tear! In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust!

So I said, “Oh, my dear people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now that destructive army will come against us.”

Wail and cry out in anguish, you rulers! Roll in the dust, you who shepherd flocks of people! The time for you to be slaughtered has come. You will lie scattered and fallen like broken pieces of fine pottery.