Jeremiah 9:2–9

²ⁿO that I had in the desert

a wayfarers’ lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all adulterers,

a company of treacherous men.

³They bend their tongue like a bow;

falsehood and not truth has grown strong^o in the land;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know me, says the Lord.

⁴Let every one beware of his neighbor,

and put no trust in any brother;

for every brother is a supplanter,

and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

⁵Every one deceives his neighbor,

and no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongue to speak lies;

they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.^p

⁶Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,

they refuse to know me, says the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, I will refine them and test them,

for what else can I do, because of my people?

⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceitfully;

with his mouth each speaks peaceably to his neighbor,

but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord;

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?