Jeremiah 9

1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2Oh, that I had a travelers’ lodging place in the wilderness, so that I could leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors.

3They bend their tongues like bows to shoot lies; it is not by faithfulness that they have grown strong in the land. For they go from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares Yahweh.

4Be on guard against your neighbor, and do not trust any brother, for every brother is a cheat, and every neighbor goes around spreading slander.

5Each one deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong.

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

7Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: I am about to refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of my people?

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

9Should I not punish them for these things? declares Yahweh. Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?

10I will weep and wail for the mountains and raise a lament over the pastures of the wilderness, for they are burned up so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the sky and the animals have fled and are gone.

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

12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been told by the mouth of Yahweh, so that he can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

13Yahweh said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in it.

14They have followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

15Therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have finished them off.”

17This is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider this, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come.

18Let them hurry and raise a lament over us, so that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids flow with water.

19For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! We are utterly put to shame, for we have left the land, for they have torn down our dwellings.”

20Now hear the word of Yahweh, you women; let your ears receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament, and each one teach her neighbor a dirge:

21“Death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.”

22Say this, declares Yahweh: Human corpses will fall like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.

23This is what Yahweh says: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the strong boast in their strength, and do not let the rich boast in their riches.

24But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am Yahweh, who acts with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight, declares Yahweh.

25Look, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised:

26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who clip the edges of their hair, who live in the desert. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.