13. The Lord says: It is because they have abandoned my Instruction that I gave them, and haven’t obeyed or followed it.
14. Instead, they have followed their own willful hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.
15. Therefore, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to feed this people bitter food and give them poison to drink.
16. I will scatter them among nations about whom neither they nor their ancestors have ever heard. I will pursue them with the sword until all are gone.
17. The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:Pay attention!Summon the women who mourn,let them come;send for those best trained,let them come.
18. Hurry!Let them weep for usso that our eyes fill up with tearsand water streams down.
19. The sound of sobbingis heard from Zion:"We’re devastated!We’re so ashamed!We have to leave the landand abandon our homes!"
20. Women, hear the Lord’s word. Listen closely to the wordfrom his mouth:teach your daughters to mourn;teach each other to grieve.
21. Death has climbed through our windows;it has entered our fortressesto eliminate children from the streets,the youth from the squares.
22. Declare what the Lord says:Dead bodies will lielike dung on the fields,like bundles of grain after the harvest,with no one to pick them up.
23. The Lord proclaims:the learned should not boast of their knowledge,nor warriors boast of their might,nor the rich boast of their wealth.
24. No, those who boast should boast in this:that they understand and know me.I am the Lord who acts with kindness,justice, and righteousness in the world,and I delight in these things,declares the Lord.