Here is a message about the Desert by the Sea: ¹  Like strong winds blowing in the south, ²  one invades from the desert, from a land that is feared.

Here is a message about Dumah: ¹  Someone calls to me from Seir, ²  “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” ³ 

Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, ¹  for the port is too devastated to enter! ²  From the land of Cyprus ³  this news is announced to them.

Lament, ¹  you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon ²  who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

On this mountain he will swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, ¹  the woven covering that is over all the nations; ² 

those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹  They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, ²  happiness and joy will overwhelm ³  them; grief and suffering will disappear. ⁴ 

These double disasters confronted you. But who feels sorry for you? Destruction and devastation, famine and sword. But who consoles you? ¹ 

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.

They will answer, ‘Moab is disgraced, for it has fallen! Wail and cry out in mourning! Announce along the Arnon River that Moab has been destroyed.’

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!

Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house. I noticed ¹  women sitting there weeping for Tammuz. ² 

This is a lament; they will chant it. The daughters of the nations will chant it. They will chant it over Egypt and over all her hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.”

They do not pray to me, ¹  but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves ²  for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.

The people ¹  of Nineveh believed in God, ²  and they declared a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ³ 

Nineveh ¹  is taken into exile ²  and is led away; ³  her slave girls moan ⁴  like doves ⁵  while they beat ⁶  their breasts. ⁷ 

Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust; they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated! Who will lament for her?’ There will be no one to comfort you!” ¹ 

On that day,” says the Lord, “a loud cry will go up ¹  from the Fish Gate, ²  wailing from the city’s newer district, ³  and a loud crash ⁴  from the hills.

as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

“‘The high ¹  priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained ²  to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. ³ 

She then said to her father, “Please grant me this one wish. ¹  For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.” ²