Jeremiah 9

Chapter 9

A Lament over Zion

^11aOh that my head were waters

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the ^bdaughter of my people!

^21aOh that I had in the desert

A wayfarers’ lodging place;

That I might leave my people

And go from them!

For all of them are ^badulterers,

An assembly of ^ctreacherous men.

³“They ^abend their tongue like their bow;

Lies and not truth prevail in the land;

For they ^bproceed from evil to evil,

And they ^cdo not know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Let everyone ^abe on guard against his neighbor,

And ^bdo not trust any brother;

Because every ^cbrother deals ¹craftily,

And every neighbor ^dgoes about as a slanderer.

⁵“Everyone ^adeceives his neighbor

And does not speak the truth,

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They ^bweary themselves committing iniquity.

⁶“Your ^adwelling is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they ^brefuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them and ^aassay them;

For ^bwhat else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

⁸“Their ^atongue is a deadly arrow;

It speaks deceit;

With his mouth one ^bspeaks peace to his neighbor,

But inwardly he ^csets an ambush for him.

⁹“^aShall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.

“On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?

¹⁰“For the ^amountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,

And for the pastures of the ^bwilderness a dirge,

Because they are ^claid waste so that no one passes through,

And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;

Both the ^dbirds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem a ^aheap of ruins,

A haunt of ^bjackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a ^cdesolation, without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the ^awise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom ^bthe mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? ^cWhy is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³The Lord said, “Because they have ^aforsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,

¹⁴but have ^awalked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the ^bBaals, as their ^cfathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, ^aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them ^bpoisoned water to drink.

¹⁶“I will ^ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the ^bsword after them until I have annihilated them.”

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Consider and call for the ^amourning women, that they may come;

And send for the ^1bwailing women, that they may come!

¹⁸“Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,

That our ^aeyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹“For a voice of ^awailing is heard from Zion,

‘^bHow are we ruined!

We are put to great shame,

For we have ^cleft the land,

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the Lord, O you ^awomen,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a dirge.

²¹For ^adeath has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the ^bchildren from the streets,

The young men from the town squares.

²²Speak, “Thus says the Lord,

‘The corpses of men will fall ^alike dung on the open field,

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’ ”

²³Thus says the Lord, “^aLet not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the ^bmighty man boast of his might, let not a ^crich man boast of his riches;

²⁴but let him who boasts ^aboast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who ^bexercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I ^cdelight in these things,” declares the Lord.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet ^auncircumcised—

²⁶Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and ^aall those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^buncircumcised of heart.”