O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only child, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
Instead of perfume there will be a stench; and instead of a sash, a rope; and instead of well-styled hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a binding of sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.
therefore this iniquity shall become for you like a break in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;
Upon all the bare heights in the desert, spoilers have come, for the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the land to the other; no one shall be safe.
But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
You shall say to them this word: Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is struck down with a crushing blow, with a very grievous wound.
Their widows became more numerous than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of youths a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon her suddenly.
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse,
Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from far and wide in the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”)
Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the animals have fled and are gone.
For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.
She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers, she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city.
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow, and with her was a large crowd from the town.