Her gates will mourn and lament; deprived of her people, she will sit on the ground. ¹ 

Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

Grieve, mourn, ¹  and weep. Turn your laughter ²  into mourning and your joy into despair.

Because of Israel’s sins ¹  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²  says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ³  They will tell the field workers ⁴  to lament and the professional mourners ⁵  to wail.

There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, ¹  nor ever will be again. ² 

Indeed, the cries of distress echo throughout Moabite territory; their wailing can be heard in Eglaim and Beer Elim. ¹ 

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹ 

“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 

They will lament loudly ¹  over you and cry bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; ² 

“Woe to you who are well satisfied with food ¹  now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you ²  who laugh ³  now, for you will mourn and weep.

I said, ¹  “I will weep and mourn ²  for the grasslands on the mountains, ³  I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”

In that day people will sing this taunt song to you – they will mock you with this lament: ¹  ‘We are completely destroyed; they sell off ²  the property of my people. How they remove it from me! ³  They assign our fields to the conqueror.’ ⁴ 

Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he ¹  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ²  and bitter voice.

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

So I weep along with Jazer ¹  over the vines of Sibmah. I will saturate you ²  with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh, for the conquering invaders shout triumphantly over your fruit and crops. ³ 

For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion. They will wail, ¹  ‘We are utterly ruined! ²  We are completely disgraced! For our houses have been torn down and we must leave our land.’” ³ 

People of Jerusalem, ¹  go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning. Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly. Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. ²  For your allies ³  have all been defeated.

You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears ¹  as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  you will weep ²  and wail, ³  but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, ⁴  but your sadness will turn into ⁵  joy.

They will sing this lament over you: ¹  “‘How you have perished – you have vanished ²  from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror! ³