^{17 Ref} Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Consider ye, and call for mourning women, And they come, And to the wise women send, and they come,

^{18 Ref} And they hasten, and lift up for us a wailing. And run down our eyes do tears, And from our eyelids do waters flow.

^{19 Ref} For -- a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How have we been spoiled! We have been greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because they have cast down our tabernacles.

^{20 Ref} But hear, ye women, a word of Jehovah, And your ear receiveth a word of His mouth, And teach ye your daughters wailing, and each her neighbour lamentation.

^{21 Ref} For death hath come up into our windows, It hath come into our palaces, To cut off the suckling from without, Young men from the broad places.

^{22 Ref} Speak thus -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And fallen hath the carcase of man, As dung on the face of the field, And as a handful after the reaper, And there is none gathering.