Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.
- KJV Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.
- NKJV Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.
- NASB Now hear the word of the Lord, you women, And let your ears receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.
- NLT Listen, you women, to the words of the Lord; open your ears to what he has to say. Teach your daughters to wail; teach one another how to lament.
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 tells the women to teach their daughters and neighbors how to wail. The coming grief will be so widespread that lament must be passed on.
Overview
Yahweh instructs the women to receive His word and train others in lamentation. The need to teach mourning to the next generation reveals how pervasive and lasting the calamity will be. The verse soberly portrays a nation steeped in grief, while implicitly calling the people to hear God's word even now and turn before the wailing comes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Luke 23:27–30A great number of people followed Him, including women who kept mourning and wailing for Him.
- Isa 32:9–13Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.
- Job 22:22Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.
- Isa 3:16The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—
- Jer 9:17–18This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
- Isa 3:4“I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”
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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 9:20 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.