Jeremiah 9:12-22

New International Version

¹²Who is wise^(A) enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

¹³The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.^(B) ¹⁴Instead, they have followed^(C) the stubbornness of their hearts;^(D) they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” ¹⁵Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food^(E) and drink poisoned water.^(F) ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations^(G) that neither they nor their ancestors have known,^(H) and I will pursue them with the sword^(I) until I have made an end of them.”^(J)

¹⁷This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Consider now! Call for the wailing women^(K) to come;
    send for the most skillful of them.
¹⁸Let them come quickly
    and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
    and water streams from our eyelids.^(L)
¹⁹The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ‘How ruined^(M) we are!
    How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
    because our houses are in ruins.’”

²⁰Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord;
    open your ears to the words of his mouth.^(N)
Teach your daughters how to wail;
    teach one another a lament.^(O)
²¹Death has climbed in through our windows^(P)
    and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
    and the young men^(Q) from the public squares.