Lamentations 2:11-12, 19-20

My eyes have no tears left, and my stomach is tied in knots. My heart is spilled out into the dirt over the destruction of the daughter of my people. Little toddlers and children collapse in the streets of the city. They keep saying, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” as they faint like wounded men in the city streets. Their souls trickle away, and they breathe their last in the embrace of their mothers.

Arise, cry aloud through the night as each watch begins. Pour your heart out like water before the presence of YAHWEH. Raise your hands toward him; intercede for the lives of your children, who faint with hunger on every street corner. “Look, YAHWEH, and please consider. Whom have you ever treated this way? Should women eat their offspring, the little ones they have nursed? Should priests and prophets be slaughtered in the Lord’s sanctuary?