The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 9

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 9

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

2 Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers! Then I would leave my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a band of traitors.

3 They extend their tongue like a bow for lies; they are strong in the land, but not for truth. They proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord.

4 Beware each of his neighbor, and trust no brother; for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about slandering.

5 They will mock each other, and they do not speak the truth; they teach their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves in wicked deeds.

6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

7 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will refine and test them, for how can I deal with the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they speak peace to their neighbors, but inwardly they plot against them.

9 Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

10 I will raise up weeping and lamentation for the mountains, and lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness; for they are burned up, and no one passes through them; the lowing of cattle is not heard anymore; from the birds of the air to the beasts they have wandered off and fled.

11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps of ruins, a dwelling place for dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, so that they will be forsaken.

12 Who is the wise man who understands this? And to whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, and been burned like a desert, so that no one passes through it?

13 And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not listened to my voice, nor walked in it.

14 But they have walked after the stubbornness of their own hearts, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.

15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and make them drink gall.

16 And I will scatter them among nations that have not known them or their fathers, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

17 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider, and call for mourning women, that they may come; and send for wise women, that they may come also.

18 Let them hasten and raise their lamentation over us; let our eyes overflow with tears, and our eyelids drip with water.

19 For a voice of weeping is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! We are greatly ashamed, for we have forsaken the land, and they have overturned our dwellings.”

20 Hear therefore, you women, the word of the Lord, and let your ears receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters lamentation, and each one her neighbor lamentation.

21 For death has climbed through our windows and entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.

22 Say: Thus says the Lord: Even the corpses of men will lie like dung on the face of the field, and like sheaves behind the reaper, and there is no one to gather them.

23 Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.

24 But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all the circumcised along with the uncircumcised:

26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who cut the corners of their hair, who live in the desert; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”