9
1 Oh
that my head
were waters,
and my eyes
a spring 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 “They bend
their tongue,
as their bow,
for falsehood.
They have grown strong
in the land,
but not for truth;
for they proceed
from evil to evil,
and they don’t know
me,” says the LORD.
4 “Everyone beware
of his neighbor,
and don’t trust in
any brother;
for every brother
will utterly supplant,
and every
neighbor will go around
like a slanderer.
5 Friends deceive each other,
and will not speak
the truth.
They have taught
their tongue to speak
lies.
They weary themselves committing
iniquity.
6 Your habitation is
in the middle
of deceit.
Through deceit, they
refuse to know me,”
says the LORD.
7 Therefore the
LORD of Armies
says,
“Behold, I will melt
them and test them;
for how should
I deal with
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 waits
to ambush him.
9 Shouldn’t
I punish them for
these things?” says
the LORD.
“Shouldn’t my soul be avenged
on a nation such
as this?
10 I
will weep and wail
for the mountains,
and lament for
the pastures of
the wilderness,
because they
are burned up, so
that no one passes
through;
Men can’t hear the voice of
the livestock.
Both the birds of
the sky and
the animals have fled.
They are gone.
11 “I
will make Jerusalem heaps,
a dwelling place of jackals.
I will make
the cities of Judah
a desolation,
without inhabitant.”
12 Who
is wise enough to
understand this?
Who is he
to whom the
mouth of the
LORD has spoken,
that he may
declare it? Why
has the
land perished and burned
up like
a wilderness, so
that no one
passes through?
13 The
LORD says, “Because they have
forsaken my law which I set before
them, and have
not obeyed my voice or
walked in my ways,
14 but
have walked after the stubbornness
of their own heart
and after the Baals,
which their fathers taught
them.”
15 Therefore
the LORD of
Armies, the God
of Israel, says, “Behold,
I will feed
them, even this
people, with wormwood
and give them poisoned water
to drink.
16 I
will scatter them
also among the nations,
whom neither they nor
their fathers have known.
I will send
the sword after
them, until I
have consumed them.”
17 The
LORD of Armies says,
“Consider, and call
for the mourning women,
that they may
come.
Send for the skillful women,
that they may
come.
18 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 we
are ruined!
We are greatly confounded
because we
have forsaken the land,
because they have
cast down
our dwellings.’ ”
20 Yet hear
the LORD’s word,
you women.
Let your ear receive the word
of his mouth.
Teach your daughters wailing.
Everyone teach her neighbor
a lamentation.
21 For
death has come
up into
our windows.
It has entered
into our palaces
to cut off
the children from
outside,
and the young men
from the streets.
22 Speak, “The
LORD says,
“ ‘The dead bodies of
men will fall
as dung on the open
field,
and as the handful
after the harvester.
No one will gather
them.’ ”
23 The
LORD says,
“Don’t let the wise
man glory in
his wisdom.
Don’t let the mighty man
glory in his
might.
Don’t let the rich man
glory in
his riches.
24 But
let him who glories
glory in this,
that he
has understanding, and knows
me,
that I am
the LORD
who exercises loving kindness, justice,
and righteousness in
the earth,
for I delight in
these things,”
says the LORD.
25 “Behold,
the days come,” says
the LORD, “that
I will punish all
those who
are circumcised only
in their flesh:
26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the
children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair
cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are
uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in
heart.”