9. For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, a lament for the desert pastures. For they are so scorched that no one passes through— the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone.
10. “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a wasteland without inhabitant.
11. Who is the one wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken that he may explain it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?”
12. Adonai said “It is because they have forsaken My Torah that I set before them. They have neither obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,
13. but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baalim that their fathers taught them.
14. Therefore, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel, “look, I will make this people eat wormwood and drink poisoned water.
15. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will pursue them with the sword, until I have finished with them.”
16. Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Pay attention! Call the dirge-singers and let them come. Send for the most skillful wailers and let them come!”
17. “Let them come quickly and lift up a wailing over us so our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush with water.”
18. For a wailing voice is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! We are utterly ashamed— we have forsaken the land, for they tore down our dwellings.”
19. Now, hear the word of Adonai, O women, let your ear receive the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters wailing and everyone her neighbor a dirge.