So I say: “Don’t look at me! ¹  I am weeping bitterly. Don’t try ²  to console me concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ³ 

He said, “You will no longer celebrate, oppressed ¹  virgin daughter Sidon! Get up, travel to Cyprus, but you will find no relief there.” ² 

The wild animals of the desert honor me, the jackals and ostriches, because I put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness, to quench the thirst of my chosen people,

“Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, ¹  O daughter of the Babylonians! Indeed, ²  you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ¹  that will be better than sons and daughters. I will set up a permanent monument ²  for them that will remain.

Look all around you! ¹  They all gather and come to you – your sons come from far away and your daughters are escorted by guardians.

Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: ¹  “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘Look, your deliverer comes! Look, his reward is with him and his reward goes before him!’” ² 

From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal, has taken away ¹  all that our ancestors ²  worked for. It has taken away our flocks and our herds, and even our sons and daughters.

“At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem ¹  will be told, ‘A scorching wind will sweep down from the hilltops in the desert on ²  my dear people. ³  It will not be a gentle breeze for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff. ⁴ 

So I said, ¹  “Oh, my dear people, ²  put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now ³  that destructive army ⁴  will come against us.”

There is still medicinal ointment ¹  available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! ²  Why then have my dear people ³  not been restored to health? ⁴ 

(8:23) ¹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²  and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people ³  who have been killed.

Therefore the Lord who rules over all says, ¹  “I will now purify them in the fires of affliction ²  and test them. The wickedness of my dear people ³  has left me no choice. What else can I do? ⁴ 

I said, ¹  “So now, ²  you wailing women, hear what the Lord says. ³  Open your ears to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and each of you teach your neighbor ⁴  this lament.

So the Lord who rules over all ¹  said, “I will surely ²  punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. ³  Their sons and daughters will die of starvation.

How long will you vacillate, ¹  you who were once like an unfaithful daughter? ²  For I, the Lord, promise ³  to bring about something new ⁴  on the earth, something as unique as a woman protecting a man!’” ⁵ 

We and our wives and our sons and daughters have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. We have never drunk wine. ¹ 

Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ¹  you dear poor people of Egypt. ²  But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ³  there will be no healing for you.

Pack your bags for exile, you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt. ¹  For Memphis will be laid waste. It will lie in ruins ²  and be uninhabited.

Come down from your place of honor; sit on the dry ground, ¹  you who live in Dibon. ²  For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you; he will destroy your fortifications.