Jeremiah 9:1–12:17
†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!
2 Oh 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.
3 And 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.
4 kTake 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.
5 And 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.
6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;
oThrough deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.
7 Therefore 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?
8 fsTheir 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.
9 wShall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord:
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 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.
11 And I will make Jerusalem bheaps, and ca den of ddragons;
And I will make the cities of Judah †desolate, without an inhabitant.
12 eWho 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?
13 And the Lord saith, Because gthey have forsaken my law which I set before them,
And have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
14 But hhave walked after the ||himagination of their own heart,
And after Baalim, iwhich their fathers taught them:
15 Therefore 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.
16 nI 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.
17 Thus 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:
18 And 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.
19 For 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.
20 Yet 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.
21 For 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.
22 Speak, 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.
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:
24 bBut 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.
25 Behold, fthe days come, saith the Lord,
That gI will †punish all them which are gcircumcised with the uncircumcised;
26 hEgypt, 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.
10 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Learn not the way of the heathen,
And abe not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
For the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For 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.
4 fThey deck it with silver and with gold;
gThey fasten it with nails and with hammers, ghthat it move not.
5 They 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.
6 Forasmuch as there is onone like unto thee, O Lord;
oThou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 pWho 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.
8 But they are †altogether tbrutish and ufoolish:
vThe stock is a doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver 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.
10 But 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.
12 fgHe hath made the earth by his power,
hHe hath established the world by his wisdom,
And ihath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13 iiWhen 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.
14 Every 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.
15 rThey are vanity, and the work of errors:
In the time of stheir visitation ethey shall perish.
16 tThe 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.
17 wGather up thy wares out of the land,
O †inhabitant of xthe fortress.
Behold, yI will sling out the inhabitants of the land yyat this once,
And will zdistress them, athat they may find it so.
19 bWoe is me for my hurt! cmy wound is grievous:
dBut I said, Truly this is a grief, and eI must bear it.
20 fMy 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.
21 For gthe pastors hare become brutish,
And have not sought the Lord:
Therefore they shall not iprosper,
And all their flocks shall be scattered.
22 Behold, 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.
23 O Lord, I know that nthe way of man is not in himself:
It is not in man that walketh oto direct his steps.
24 O Lord, pcorrect me, but with judgment;
Not in thine anger, lest thou †bring me to nothing.
25 qPour 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, 2 aHear ye the words of athis covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; bCursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, 4 Which 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: 5 That 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. 6 Then 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. 7 For 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. 8 iYet 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. 9 And the Lord said unto me, lA conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They 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. 11 Therefore 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. 12 Then 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. 13 pFor 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 …