They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. 'All is well,' they say, when all is not well.

The time is coming when the people of Jerusalem will be told that a scorching wind is blowing in from the desert toward them. It will not be a gentle wind that only blows away the chaff---

Listen! Throughout the land I hear my people crying out, "Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is Zion's king no longer there?" The LORD, their king, replies, "Why have you made me angry by worshiping your idols and by bowing down to your useless foreign gods?"

My heart has been crushed because my people are crushed; I mourn; I am completely dismayed.

Is there no medicine in Gilead? Are there no doctors there? Why, then, have my people not been healed?

I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

The LORD commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say: "May my eyes flow with tears day and night, may I never stop weeping, for my people are deeply wounded and are badly hurt.

Now leave me alone to weep bitterly over all those of my people who have died. Don't try to comfort me.

My eyes are worn out with weeping; my soul is in anguish. I am exhausted with grief at the destruction of my people. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears at the destruction of my people.

Even a mother wolf will nurse her cubs, but my people are like ostriches, cruel to their young.

My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God.

The disaster that came to my people brought horror; loving mothers boiled their own children for food.

So put on sackcloth, and weep and wail because the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from Judah.

On that day the bodies of those whom the LORD has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams.

You have been living an easy life, free from worries; but now, tremble with fear! Strip off your clothes and tie rags around your waist.

They all mourn bitterly for you, Throwing dust on their heads and rolling in ashes.

They shave their heads for you And dress themselves in sackcloth. Their hearts are bitter as they weep.

Then Micah said, "Because of this I will mourn and lament. To show my sorrow, I will walk around barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and wail like an ostrich.

Don't tell our enemies in Gath about our defeat; don't let them see you weeping. People of Beth Leaphrah, show your despair by rolling in the dust!

I wish my head were a well of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

I said, "I will mourn for the mountains and weep for the pastures, because they have dried up, and no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard; birds and wild animals have fled and gone."

The LORD Almighty said, "Think about what is happening! Call for the mourners to come, for the women who sing funeral songs."

Listen to the sound of crying in Zion: "We are ruined! We are completely disgraced! We must leave our land; our homes have been torn down."

Death has come in through our windows and entered our palaces; it has cut down the children in the streets and the young men in the marketplaces.

If you will not listen, I will cry in secret because of your pride; I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow because the LORD's people have been taken away as captives.

The Sovereign LORD Almighty was calling you then to weep and mourn, to shave your heads and wear sackcloth.

All night long she cries; tears run down her cheeks. Of all her former friends, not one is left to comfort her. Her allies have betrayed her and are all against her now.

"That is why my eyes are overflowing with tears. No one can comfort me; no one can give me courage. The enemy has conquered me; my people have nothing left.

Some will escape to the mountains like doves frightened from the valleys. All of them will moan over their sins.

They will put on sackcloth and they will tremble all over. Their heads will be shaved, and they will all be disgraced.

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

Just as he arrived at the gate of the town, a funeral procession was coming out. The dead man was the only son of a woman who was a widow, and a large crowd from the town was with her.

Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom!

And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you!

One disaster follows another; the whole country is left in ruins. Suddenly our tents are destroyed; their curtains are torn to pieces.

Across all the desert highlands people have come to plunder. I have sent war to destroy the entire land; no one can live in peace.

There are more widows in your land than grains of sand by the sea. I killed your young men in their prime and made their mothers suffer. I suddenly struck them with anguish and terror.

You are guilty. You are like a high wall with a crack running down it; suddenly you will collapse.