O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, and roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation because suddenly the ravager shall come upon us.
And she went and sat down about a bowshot away, for she said, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.
And it shall be: Instead of a sweet fragrance, a smell of decay; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a festal robe, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of loveliness.
“The ravagers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness, for the sword of יהוה is devouring from one end of the land to the other end of the land. There is no peace to any flesh.
And if you do not listen, my being shall weep in secret for your pride, and my eyes bitterly weep and run down with tears, because the flock of יהוה shall be taken captive.
“And you shall say this word to them, ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the maiden daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow, with a very severe wound.
“Their widows shall be more numerous than the sand of the seas. I shall bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a ravager at noon. I shall cause agitation and sudden alarm to fall on her, suddenly.
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when You bring a raiding party suddenly upon them. For they have dug a pit to take me, and laid snares for my feet.
At that time it shall be said to this people and to Yerushalayim, “A scorching wind of the bare heights blows in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not to fan or to cleanse.
Observe! The voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land, “Is יהוה not in Tsiyon? Is her Sovereign not in her?” “Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, and with foreign worthlessnesses?”
“I shall take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they have been burned up, without any passing over, nor has the voice of cattle been heard. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled, they have gone.
“This is why I weep. My eye, my eye is running down with water, Because the comforter, Who could bring back my life, Has been far from me. My children are stunned, For the enemy has prevailed.”
She weeps bitterly at night, And her tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no comforter for her. All her friends have betrayed her, They have become her enemies.
My eyes are spent with tears, My inward parts ferment, My bile has been poured on the ground Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, As children and the infants languish In the streets of the city.
Even jackals have presented their breasts, They have nursed their young. The daughter of my people has become as cruel, As ostriches in the wilderness.
and shall turn your festivals into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation, and bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head, and shall make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a day of bitterness.
And see, as He came near the gate of the city a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.