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.
21. Corpses shall falllike dung in the open field,Like sheaves behind the harvester,with no one to gather them.
22. Thus says the Lord:Let not the wise boast of his wisdom,nor the strong boast of his strength,nor the rich man boast of his riches;
23. But rather, let those who boast, boast of this,that in their prudence they know me,Know that I, the Lord, act with fidelity,justice, and integrity on earth.How I take delight in these—oracle of the Lord.
24. See, days are coming—oracle of the Lord—when I will demand an account of all those circumcised in the foreskin: