They are saying, ¹  ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ²  “The enemy is coming!” ³  Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

I said, “Indeed, ¹  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

The people I call my own ¹  have turned on me like a lion ²  in the forest. They have roared defiantly ³  at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁴ 

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ¹  Cries of distress come up to me ²  from Jerusalem. ³ 

So I will weep with sorrow for Moab. I will cry out in sadness for all of Moab. I will moan ¹  for the people of Kir Heres.

But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. ¹  Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed!

ג (Gimel) Even the jackals ¹  nurse their young at their breast, ²  but my people ³  are cruel, like ostriches ⁴  in the desert.

“At that time, ¹  I will willingly respond,” ²  declares the Lord. “I will respond to the sky, and the sky ³  will respond to the ground;

then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)! ¹ 

All of them are blazing like an oven; they devour their rulers. All of their kings fall – and none of them call on me!

Wake up, you drunkards, ¹  and weep! Wail, all you wine drinkers, ²  because the sweet wine ³  has been taken away ⁴  from you. ⁵ 

Be distressed, ¹  farmers; wail, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley. For the harvest of the field has perished.

Her conquerors cry out: ¹  “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure; riches of every kind of precious thing.

but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹ 

When ¹  the disciples saw him walking on the water ²  they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.

But he did not answer her a word. Then ¹  his disciples came and begged him, ²  “Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us.”

and will cut him in two, ¹  and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Won’t ¹  God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out ²  to him day and night? ³  Will he delay ⁴  long to help them?

because the service of this ministry is not only providing for ¹  the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.

But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ²  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ³  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.