And Yirmeyahu lamented for Yoshiyahu. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Yoshiyahu in their lamentations, and made it a law in Yisra’ĕl. And see, they are written in the Laments.
He has made it all, beautiful in its time. Even the ages He has put in their hearts, except that no one finds out the work that Elohim does from beginning to end.
He has gone up to the house and Diḇon, to the high places to weep. Mo’aḇ is wailing over Neḇo and over Mĕyḏeḇa; on all their heads is baldness, and every beard is cut off.
The wrong finds favour, yet he shall not learn righteousness; in the land of straightforwardness he acts perversely, and does not see the excellency of יהוה.
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.
and sent Elyaqim, who was over the household, and Sheḇnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, to Yeshayahu the prophet, the son of Amots.
They say, ‘Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our beings, and You took no note?’ ”Look, in the day of your fasting you find pleasure, and drive on all your labourers.
“Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them, or cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them.
“And they shall shave themselves bald because of you, and shall gird themselves with sackcloth. And they shall weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
O Yisra’ĕl, do not rejoice with exultation like the peoples, for you have whored from your Elohim. You have loved a harlot-fee at all threshing-floors.
Gird yourselves and lament, you priests. Wail, you attendants of the slaughter-place. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you attendants of my Elohim. For the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your Elohim.
Let the priests, servants of יהוה, weep between the porch and the slaughter-place. And let them say, “Spare Your people, O יהוה, and do not give Your inheritance to reproach, for the nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their Elohim?’ ”
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.