Jeremiah 9

¹ Oh, that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!

² Oh, that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place,
that I might leave my people and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.

³ "They bend their tongues like bows;
it is not truth that prevails in the land,
but they go from evil to evil,
and they do not know me,
declares the LORD.

⁴ Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
and put no trust in any brother;
for every brother is a Jacob,
and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

⁵ Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.

⁶ "You live in the midst of deceit;
in their deceit they refuse to know me,
declares the LORD."

⁷ Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts:
Behold, I will smelt and test them,
for what else can I do because of the daughter of my people?

⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks deceit.
With his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.

⁹ "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD.
Shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"

¹⁰ I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
and a lament for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone.

¹¹ "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals,
and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant."

¹² Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

¹³ And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in it,"

¹⁴ "but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them —"

¹⁵ therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.

¹⁶ I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD of Hosts:
"Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skilled women to come,"

¹⁸ "let them quickly raise a lamentation over us,
that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids flow with water."

¹⁹ For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
"How we are ruined!
We are utterly shamed,
because we have left the land,
because they have thrown down our dwellings."

²⁰ Hear, O women, the word of the LORD;
let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament,
and each her neighbor a dirge.

²¹ For death has come up through our windows;
it has entered our palaces;
to cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the squares.

²² Speak: "Thus says the LORD,
Dead bodies will fall
like dung upon the face of the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
with none to gather."

²³ Thus says the LORD:
"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,
let not the mighty man boast in his might,
let not the rich man boast in his riches."

²⁴ "But let him who boasts boast in this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight,
declares the LORD."

²⁵ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all who are circumcised merely in the flesh —"

²⁶ "Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who cut the corners of their hair, who dwell in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."