Jeremiah 9–11

9^†Oh ^athat my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night for the slain of ^bthe daughter of my people!

²Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of ^bbwayfaring men;

That I might leave my people, and go from them!

For ^cthey be all adulterers, ^dan assembly of ^etreacherous men.

³And ^fthey bend their tongues like their bow for lies:

But ^gthey are not valiant for ^hthe truth upon the earth;

For they proceed from evil to evil,

And ^hithey know not me, saith the Lord.

^4kTake ye heed every one of his ^||neighbour,

And ^ktrust ye not in any brother:

For every brother ^lwill utterly supplant,

And every neighbour ^mwill walk with slanders.

⁵And they will ^||deceive every one his neighbour,

And will not speak the truth:

They have taught their tongue to speak lies,

And weary themselves ⁿto commit iniquity.

⁶Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;

^oThrough deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,

Behold, I will ^pmelt them, and ^qtry them;

For ^rhow shall I do for ^bthe daughter of my people?

^8fsTheir tongue is as an arrow shot out; ^tit speaketh deceit:

One ^uspeaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,

But ^†in heart ^vhe layeth ^||his wait.

^9wShall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord:

Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,

And ^xfor the ^||yhabitations of the wilderness a lamentation,

Because they are ^||zburned up, so that none can pass through them;

Neither can men hear the voice of the cattle;

^†Both ^athe fowl of the heavens and the beast

^aAre fled; they are gone.

¹¹And I will make Jerusalem ^bheaps, and ^ca den of ^ddragons;

And I will make the cities of Judah ^†desolate, without an inhabitant.

^12eWho is the wise man, that may understand this?

And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it,

For what the land perisheth

And ^fis burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?

¹³And the Lord saith, Because ^gthey have forsaken my law which I set before them,

And have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

¹⁴But ^hhave walked after the ^||himagination of their own heart,

And after Baalim, ⁱwhich their fathers taught them:

¹⁵Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;

Behold, ^kI will feed them, even this people, ^lwith wormwood,

And ^mgive them water of gall to drink.

¹⁶ⁿI ^owill scatter them also among the heathen, ^pwhom neither they nor their fathers have known:

And ^nqI will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷Thus saith the Lord of hosts,

Consider ye, and call for ^rthe mourning women, that they may come;

And send for cunning women, that they may come:

¹⁸And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us,

That ^sour eyes may run down with tears,

And our eyelids gush out with waters.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ^tHow are we spoiled!

We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land,

Because our dwellings have ^ucast us out.

²⁰Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women,

And let your ear receive the word of his mouth,

And teach your daughters wailing,

And every one her neighbour lamentation.

²¹For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces,

To cut off ^vthe children ^wfrom without, and ^vthe young men ^wfrom the streets.

²²Speak, Thus saith the Lord,

Even the carcases of men shall fall ^xas dung upon the open field,

And as ^ythe handful after the harvestman, and ^znone ^xshall gather them.

²³Thus saith the Lord,

^abLet 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:

^24bBut ^clet him that glorieth glory in this,

That he understandeth and ^dknoweth me,

That I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:

For ^ein these things I delight, saith the Lord.

²⁵Behold, ^fthe days come, saith the Lord,

That ^gI will ^†punish all them which are ^gcircumcised with the uncircumcised;

^26hEgypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab,

And all that are ^†in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness:

For all these nations are uncircumcised,

And all the house of Israel ⁱare uncircumcised in the heart.

10Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

²Thus saith the Lord,

Learn not the way of the heathen,

And ^abe not dismayed at the signs of heaven;

For the heathen are dismayed at them.

³For the ^†ccustoms of the people are vain:

For ^done cutteth a tree out of the forest,

The work of the hands of the workman, ^ewith the axe.

^4fThey deck it with silver and with gold;

^gThey fasten it with nails and with hammers, ^ghthat it move not.

⁵They are ⁱupright as ^kthe palm tree, ^lbut speak not:

^mThey must needs be borne, because they cannot go.

Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil,

ⁿNeither also is it in them to do good.

⁶Forasmuch as there is ^onone like unto thee, O Lord;

^oThou art great, and thy name is great in might.

^7pWho would not fear thee, ^qO King of nations? for ^||to thee doth it appertain:

Forasmuch as among all ^rthe wise men of the nations, and ^sin all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

⁸But they are ^†altogether ^tbrutish and ^ufoolish:

^vThe stock is a doctrine of vanities.

⁹Silver ^wspread into plates is brought from ^xTarshish,

And gold from ^yUphaz, the work of ^wthe workman, and of the hands of ^wthe founder:

^zBlue and ^apurple is their clothing:

^bThey are all the work of cunning men.

¹⁰But the Lord is the ^†true God,

He is ^cthe living God, and an ^†everlasting king:

At his wrath the earth shall tremble,

And the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

^11†Thus shall ye say unto them, ^dThe gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even ^ethey shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

^12fgHe hath made the earth by his power,

^hHe hath established the world by his wisdom,

And ⁱhath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

¹³ⁱⁱWhen he ^kuttereth his voice, there is a ^||multitude of waters in the heavens,

And ^kkhe causeth ^lthe vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth;

^llHe maketh lightnings ^||with rain,

And ^kkbringeth forth the wind out of ^mhis treasures.

¹⁴Every man ^n||is brutish in his knowledge:

Every founder ^ois confounded by the graven image:

For his molten image ^pis falsehood, and ^qthere is no breath in them.

^15rThey are vanity, and the work of errors:

In the time of ^stheir visitation ^ethey shall perish.

^16tThe portion of Jacob is not like them:

For he is the former of all things;

And ^uIsrael is the rod of his inheritance:

^vThe Lord of hosts is his name.

^17wGather up thy wares out of the land,

O ^†inhabitant of ^xthe fortress.

¹⁸For thus saith the Lord,

Behold, ^yI will sling out the inhabitants of the land ^yyat this once,

And will ^zdistress them, ^athat they may find it so.

^19bWoe is me for my hurt! ^cmy wound is grievous:

^dBut I said, Truly this is a grief, and ^eI must bear it.

^20fMy tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken:

My children are gone forth of me, and ^ffthey are not:

There is none to stretch forth my tent any more,

And to set up ^fmy curtains.

²¹For ^gthe pastors ^hare become brutish,

And have not sought the Lord:

Therefore they shall not ⁱprosper,

And all their flocks shall be scattered.

²²Behold, the noise of the ^kbruit is come,

And a great commotion out of ^lthe north country,

To make the ^mcities of Judah desolate,

And ^ma den of dragons.

²³O Lord, I know that ⁿthe way of man is not in himself:

It is not in man that walketh ^oto direct his steps.

²⁴O Lord, ^pcorrect me, but with judgment;

Not in thine anger, lest thou ^†bring me to nothing.

^25qPour out thy fury upon the heathen ^rthat know thee not,

And upon the families that call not on thy name:

For they have ^seaten up Jacob, and ^sdevoured him, and consumed him,

And have made his ^thabitation desolate.

11^*The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ^2aHear ye the words of ^athis covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; ³And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; ^bCursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, ⁴Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, ^cfrom the iron furnace, ^dsaying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: ^dso shall ye be my people, and I will be your God: ⁵That I may perform ^ethe oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them ^fa land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, ^†So be it, O Lord. ⁶Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim all these words ^ffin the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ^aHear ye the words of this covenant, and ^bgdo them. ⁷For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, ^hrising early and protesting, ^dsaying, Obey my voice. ⁸ⁱYet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but ^kwalked every one in the ^||imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all ^athe words of this covenant, ^gwhich I commanded them to do; but they did them not. ⁹And the Lord said unto me, ^lA conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They are turned back to ^mthe iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah ⁿhave broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. ¹¹Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able ^†to escape; and ^othough they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. ¹²Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their ^†trouble. ^13pFor according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that ^†shameful thing, even altars to burn…