Jeremiah 9

1If only my head were all water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I could weep day and night for the slain of my dear people!

2If only I had a travelers’ shelter in the wilderness, so that I could leave my people and go far away from them! For they are all adulterers, a crowd of traitors. 3They bend their tongues like bows to shoot lies; they have grown strong in the land, but not by truth. For they go on from one evil to the next, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.

4Be on guard, every one of you, against your neighbor, and put no trust in any brother. For every brother is a cheat like Jacob, and every neighbor goes around spreading slander. 5Everyone cheats their neighbor, and no one speaks the truth. They have trained their tongues to tell lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong. 6You live surrounded by deceit; in their deceit they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.

7Therefore the LORD of Armies says this: I am going to refine them and put them to the test, for how else can I deal with my dear people? 8Their tongue is a sharpened arrow; it speaks deceit. With their mouths they speak peace to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set an ambush for them. 9Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. On a nation such as this should I not take vengeance?

10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and raise a lament for the pastures in the wilderness, because they are scorched and no one travels through them, and no one hears the lowing of cattle. The birds of the sky and the animals have all fled and are gone. 11I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, a den for jackals, and I will make the towns of Judah a wasteland where no one lives.

12Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the LORD spoken, so that they can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a wilderness that no one crosses?

13And the LORD answered: It is because they have abandoned my instruction, which I set before them; they have not obeyed my voice or followed it, 14but have followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

15Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says this: I am going to feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will send the sword to pursue them until I have finished them off.

17The LORD of Armies says this: Think about what is happening, and call for the mourning women; let them come. Send for the women who are skilled in lament; let them come, 18and let them hurry and raise a wailing over us, so that our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. 19For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! How deep is our shame! We have had to leave the land, because our homes have been torn down.”

20Now, you women, listen to the word of the LORD; let your ears take in the word from his mouth. Teach your daughters a song of mourning, and teach one another a lament. 21For death has climbed in through our windows and entered our strongholds, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. 22Say this, declares the LORD: Human corpses will fall like dung on the open field, like cut grain left behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.

23The LORD says this: The wise must not boast about their wisdom, the strong must not boast about their strength, and the rich must not boast about their wealth. 24Instead, whoever boasts should boast of this: that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD, who acts with loyal love, justice and righteousness on the earth. For these are what I delight in, declares the LORD.

25The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will bring punishment on all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised, 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who clip the hair at their temples and live in the desert. For every one of these nations is uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.