¹⁴ The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.

³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

²² The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you.

¹³ I will cause the noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of your harps shall be no more heard.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

¹⁹ I called for my lovers, [but] they deceived me: My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, While they sought them food to refresh their souls.

⁴ The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; All her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.

¹⁰ Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

⁹ For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

⁷ The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh.

⁸ The mirth of tambourines ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases.

⁹ They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰ The waste city is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

¹¹ There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

² The mighty man, The man of war, The judge, The prophet, The diviner, The elder,

³ The captain of fifty, The honorable man, The counselor, The skilled craftsman, And the clever enchanter.

³¹ Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

¹ "But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

⁷ When I went forth to the city gate, When I prepared my seat in the street,

⁸ The young men saw me and hid themselves, The aged rose up and stood;

⁹ The princes refrained from talking, And laid their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰ The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹ For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it commended me:

¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried, And the fatherless also, who had none to help him.

¹³ The blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, And feet to the lame.

¹⁶ I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.

¹⁷ I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, And plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸ Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.