Jeremiah, Chapter 9

1. Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!    2. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for traveling men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.    3. And they bend their tongues like their bow to speak lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.    4. Beware every one of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother: for every brother will completely drive you away, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.    5. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.    6. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.    7. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and test them; for what shall I do for the daughter of my people?    8. Their tongue is like an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lies in wait.    9. Shall I not visit them for these things? says 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 for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.    11. And I will make Jerusalem heaps of ruins, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.    12. Who is the wise man, who may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what cause the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?    13. And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;    14. But have walked according to the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:    15. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them bitter water to drink.    16. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.    17. Thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skilful women, that they may come:    18. And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.    19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How we are laid waste! we are greatly astonished, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.    20. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.    21. For death has come up into our windows, and has entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.    22. Speak, Thus says the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, and like the handful of grain after the reaper, and none shall gather them.    23. Thus says the LORD, Let 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. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.    25. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will punish all those who are circumcised with the uncircumcised;    26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.