Amos 5:16

"Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing."

They shall call the husbandman ..." This means that:

"The citizens shall call the inexperienced husbandmen to act the part usually performed by professional mourners, as there will not be enough of the latter for the universal mourning which will prevail."[37]

Alas! Alas! ..." "This renders the wail of the mourners rather than actual words. Wailing and mourning with loud public lamentations mark the funeral rite throughout the east."[38] One meets with this also in the New Testament, as, for example, when the paid mourners were lamenting the death of Jairus' daughter whom Jesus raised from the dead.

To paraphrase this verse, it means that the mourning over the deceased shall be so widespread and universal that there will be not enough personnel to observe properly the funeral rites.