9
1 Oh, that my head were water 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 a travelers’ lodging in the wilderness, so I could leave my people and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers, an assembly of traitors.
3 “They bend their tongues like a bow for lies;
they have grown strong in the land, but not through faithfulness.
They go from evil to evil, and they do not know me,” declares the LORD.
4 “Let each of you beware of his neighbor, and do not trust any brother, for every brother is a thorough deceiver, and every neighbor goes about slandering.
5 Each deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they weary themselves doing wrong.
6 You live in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they refuse to know me,” declares the LORD.
7 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: “Look, I will refine them 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 a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but within he lays an ambush for him.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?”
declares the LORD.
“Shall I not avenge myself on a nation like this?”
10 I will raise weeping and wailing over the mountains, a lament over the wilderness pastures, for they are burned, with no one passing through, and the sound of livestock is no longer heard.
From the birds of the heavens to the animals, all have fled and gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, and make the cities of Judah a desolation, without an inhabitant.”
12 Who is wise enough to understand this?
To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he can explain it?
Why has the land perished, burned like a wilderness where no one passes through?
13 The LORD said, “Because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked according to it.
14 They have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”
15 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.”
17 This is what the LORD of hosts says: “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skillful women to come.
18 Let them hurry and raise a lament over us, so that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids flow with water.
19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are devastated!
We are deeply ashamed, for we have left the land, for they have torn down our dwellings.’ ”
20 Hear the word of the LORD, women;
let your ears receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters wailing, and each woman her neighbor a lament.
21 For death has climbed through our windows and entered our palaces, cutting off children from the streets and young men from the squares.
22 Say, “This is what the LORD declares: Human corpses will fall like dung on the surface of the field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”
23 This is what the LORD says: “Let the wise not boast in their wisdom, let the mighty not boast in their might, let the rich not boast in their riches.
24 But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” declares the LORD.
25 “Look, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh: 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who clip the hair at their temples and live in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”