<p class="poetry">I said, &#8220;Indeed,<n id="1" /> let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us.p> <p class="poetry">Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyesp> <p class="poetry">and our eyelids overflow with water.p>

<p class="poetry">For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.p> <p class="poetry">They will wail,<n id="1" /> &#8216;We are utterly ruined!<n id="2" /> We are completely disgraced!p> <p class="poetry">For our houses have been torn downp> <p class="poetry">and we must leave our land.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;So now,<n id="2" /> you wailing women, hear what the <sc>Lordsc> says.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Open your ears to the words from his mouth.p> <p class="poetry">Teach your daughters this mournful song,p> <p class="poetry">and each of you teach your neighbor<n id="4" /> this lament.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will weep and mourn<n id="2" /> for the grasslands on the mountains,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wildernessp> <p class="poetry">because they are so scorched no one travels through them.p> <p class="poetry">The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.p> <p class="poetry">Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fieldsp> <p class="poetry">have fled and are gone.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;A sound is heard in Ramah,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">a sound of crying in bitter grief.p> <p class="poetry">It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her childrenp> <p class="poetry">and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Because of Israel&#8217;s sins<n id="1" /> this is what the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One,<n id="2" /> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;In all the squares there will be wailing,p> <p class="poetry">in all the streets they will mourn the dead.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They will tell the field workers<n id="4" /> to lamentp> <p class="poetry">and the professional mourners<n id="5" /> to wail.p>

<p class="poetry">In that day people will sing this taunt song to you &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">they will mock you with this lament:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;We are completely destroyed;p> <p class="poetry">they sell off<n id="2" /> the property of my people.p> <p class="poetry">How they remove it from me!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They assign our fields to the conqueror.&#8217;<n id="4" />p>