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17 Let them come quickly
    and raise for us a dirge,
That our eyes may run with tears,
    our pupils flow with water.(A)
18 The sound of the dirge is heard from Zion:
    We are ruined and greatly ashamed;
We have left the land,
    given up our dwellings!
19 Hear, you women, the word of the Lord,
    let your ears receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters a dirge,
    and each other a lament:
20 Death has come up through our windows,
    has entered our citadels,
To cut down children in the street,
    young people in the squares.(B)
21 Corpses shall fall
    like dung in the open field,
Like sheaves behind the harvester,
    with no one to gather them.

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17 This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Consider now! Call for the wailing women(A) to come;
    send for the most skillful of them.
18 Let them come quickly
    and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
    and water streams from our eyelids.(B)
19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ‘How ruined(C) we are!
    How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
    because our houses are in ruins.’”

20 Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord;
    open your ears to the words of his mouth.(D)
Teach your daughters how to wail;
    teach one another a lament.(E)
21 Death has climbed in through our windows(F)
    and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
    and the young men(G) from the public squares.

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