Jer 9
1
Oh that my head were waters, and mine 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 wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave
my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous
men.
3
And they bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown
strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they
know not me, says YHWH.
4
Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother; for every
brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.
5
And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have
taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6
Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me,
says YHWH.
7
Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how
[else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?
8
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor
with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.
9
Shall I not visit them for these things? says YHWH; shall not my soul be avenged on
such a nation as this?
10
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the
wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through;
neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the
beasts are fled, they are gone.
11
And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the
cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
12
Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of
YHWH has spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned
up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?
13
And YHWH says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have
not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,
14
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which
their fathers taught them;
15
therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even
this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
16
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have
known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.
17
Thus says YHWH of hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they
may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:
18
and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down
with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19
For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded,
because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.
20
Yet hear the word of YHWH, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.
21
For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off
the children from without, [and] the young men from the streets.
22
Speak, Thus says YHWH, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field,
and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather [them].
23
Thus says YHWH, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man
glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches;
24
but let him whom glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that
I am YHWH who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth:
for in these things I delight, says YHWH.
25
Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will punish all them that are circumcised
in [their] uncircumcision:
26
Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have
the corners [of their hair] cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations
are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.