Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come; And send for skillful wailing women, That they may come.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come.
- KJV Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
- BSB This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- NASB This is what the Lord of armies says: “Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come!
- NLT This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Consider all this, and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God summons professional mourning women to come and wail over the coming calamity. The scale of grief calls for skilled lament.
Overview
Yahweh calls for the 'mourning women,' skilled in funeral dirges, to lead the nation's lamentation. The summons treats the coming judgment as a death to be openly mourned. The verse makes vivid the reality and depth of the loss ahead, calling the people to honest grief over the consequences of their sin rather than denial.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Amos 5:16–17Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord, says: “Wailing will be in all the wide ways; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’ and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
- Eccl 12:5yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:
- 2 Chr 35:25Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel. Behold, they are written in the lamentations.
- Mark 5:38He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.
- Job 3:8Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
- Matt 9:23When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 9:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.