7. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold, I will refine them and assay them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8. "Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9. "Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the Lord. "On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
10. "For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
11. "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
12. Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?
13. The Lord said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,
14. but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"
15. therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
16. I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them."
17. Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the wailing women, that they may come!
18. "Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.
19. "For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How are we ruined! We are put to great shame, For we have left the land, Because they have cast down our dwellings.'"