For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
Jeremiah breaks in upon Yahweh's threats of wrath with a lamentation for his desolated country.
For the mountains - once cultivated and fruitful: the hill-sides were cultivated in terraces between the rocks.
For the habitations of ... wilderness - х nª'owt (H4999) midbaar (H4057), either from naa'aah (H4998) pleasant, or from naawaah (H5115), to dwell. Buxtorf rightly prefers the latter; hence, habitations, shepherds' dwellings; the Hebrew letter waw (w) being changed into the Hebrew letter 'aleph ('). Still the root idea is to dwell in a pleasant place]. Translate, 'the pleasant haunts ('pastures' is the translation of the same Hebrew in Psalms 65:13) of the pasture plain.' The Hebrew for wilderness expresses not a barren desert, but an UNTILLED plain, fit for pasture.
Burned up - because no one waters them: the inhabitants being all gone.
None can pass through them - much less inhabit them.
Fowl ... are fled - (Jeremiah 4:25).