11. I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,an uninhabited place.
12. Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13. The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned My instruction that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it.
14. Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.”
15. Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.
16. I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
17. This is what the Lord of Hosts says:Consider, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women.
18. Let them come quickly to raise a lament over usso that our eyes may overflow with tears,our eyelids soaked with weeping.