17Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come;

18let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.

19For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'"

20Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.

21For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.

22Speak, "Thus declares the LORD: 'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'"

23Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

24but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."

25"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh--

26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."