Jeremiah 9

¹Oh 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 !

²Oh 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 , a company of treacherous men .

³They bend their tongue like a bow ; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land ; for they proceed from evil to evil , and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

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

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

⁶Heaping oppression upon oppression , and deceit upon deceit , they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts : Behold , I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do , because of my people ?

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

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things ? declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this ?

¹⁰I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains , and a lamentation 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 .

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

¹²Who 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 ?

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

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

¹⁵Therefore 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 .

¹⁶I 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.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts : Consider , and call for the mourning women to come ; send for the skillful women to come ;

¹⁸let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water .

¹⁹For 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 cast down our dwellings .

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

²¹For death has come up into our windows ; it has entered our palaces , cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares .

²²Speak : Thus declares the Lord, The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field , like sheaves after the reaper , and none shall gather them.

²³Thus 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 ,

²⁴but 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.

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

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