Lamentation for Judah

19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!

Oh, the pain in my chest!

My heart pounds within me;

I cannot be silent.

For I have heard the sound of the horn,

the alarm of battle.

20Disaster after disaster is proclaimed,

for the whole land is laid waste.

My tents are destroyed in an instant,

my curtains in a moment.

21How long must I see the signal flag

and hear the sound of the horn?

22“For My people are fools;

they have not known Me.

They are foolish children,

without understanding.

They are skilled in doing evil,

but they know not how to do good.”

23I looked at the earth,

and it was formless and void;

I looked to the heavens,

and they had no light.

24I looked at the mountains,

and behold, they were quaking;

all the hills were swaying.

25I looked, and no man was left;

all the birds of the air had fled.

26I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert.

All its cities were torn down

before the LORD,

before His fierce anger.

27For this is what the LORD says:

“The whole land will be desolate,

but I will not finish its destruction.

28Therefore the earth will mourn

and the heavens above will grow dark.

I have spoken, I have planned,

and I will not relent or turn back.”

29Every city flees

at the sound of the horseman and archer.

They enter the thickets

and climb among the rocks.

Every city is abandoned;

no inhabitant is left.

30And you, O devastated one, what will you do,

though you dress yourself in scarlet,

though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,

though you enlarge your eyes with paint?

You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you;

they want to take your life.

31For I hear a cry like a woman in labor,

a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—

the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath,

stretching out her hands to say,

“Woe is me,

for my soul faints before the murderers!”