12. The Lord said: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and did not listen to me or follow it,
13. but followed instead their stubborn hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors had taught them,
14. therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink.
15. I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their ancestors have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.
16. Thus says the Lord of hosts:Inquire, and call the wailing women to come;summon the most skilled of them.
17. Let them come quicklyand raise for us a dirge,That our eyes may run with tears,our pupils flow with water.
18. The sound of the dirge is heard from Zion:We are ruined and greatly ashamed;We have left the land,given up our dwellings!
19. Hear, you women, the word of the Lord,let your ears receive the word of his mouth.Teach your daughters a dirge,and each other a lament:
20. Death has come up through our windows,has entered our citadels,To cut down children in the street,young people in the squares.