| Christian Standard Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people. | 1 If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered. |
| 2If only I had a traveler's lodging place in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a solemn assembly of treacherous people. | 2 Oh, that I could go away and forget my people and live in a travelers’ shack in the desert. For they are all adulterers— a pack of treacherous liars. Judgment for Disobedience |
| 3They bent their tongues like their bows; lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land, for they proceed from one evil to another, and they do not take me into account. This is the LORD's declaration. | 3“My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me,” says the LORD. |
| 4Everyone has to be on guard against his friend. Don't trust any brother, for every brother will certainly deceive, and every friend spread slander. | 4“Beware of your neighbor! Don’t even trust your brother! For brother takes advantage of brother, and friend slanders friend. |
| 5Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong. | 5They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning. |
| 6You live in a world of deception. In their deception they refuse to know me. This is the LORD's declaration. | 6They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,” says the LORD. |
| 7Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says: I am about to refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of my dear people? | 7Therefore, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “See, I will melt them down in a crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with my people? |
| 8Their tongues are deadly arrows--they speak deception. With his mouth one speaks peaceably with his friend, but inwardly he sets up an ambush. | 8For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows. They speak friendly words to their neighbors while scheming in their heart to kill them. |
| 9Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD's declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? | 9Should I not punish them for this?” says the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?” |
| 10I will raise weeping and a lament over the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness grazing land, for they have been so scorched that no one passes through. The sound of cattle is no longer heard. From the birds of the sky to the animals, everything has fled--they have gone away. | 10I will weep for the mountains and wail for the wilderness pastures. For they are desolate and empty of life; the lowing of cattle is heard no more; the birds and wild animals have all fled. |
| 11I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals' den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, an uninhabited place. | 11“I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the LORD. “It will be a place haunted by jackals. The towns of Judah will be ghost towns, with no one living in them.” |
| 12Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the LORD spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through? | 12Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it? |
| 13The LORD said, "It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it. | 13The LORD replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said. |
| 14Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them." | 14Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them. |
| 15Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink. | 15So now, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink. |
| 16I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off." | 16I will scatter them around the world, in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and even there I will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely.” Weeping in Jerusalem |
| 17This is what the LORD of Armies says: Consider, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women. | 17This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “Consider all this, and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals. |
| 18Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us so that our eyes may overflow with tears, our eyelids be soaked with weeping. | 18Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes. |
| 19For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion: How devastated we are. We are greatly ashamed, for we have abandoned the land; our dwellings have been torn down. | 19Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair, ‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated! We must leave our land, because our homes have been torn down.’” |
| 20Now hear the word of the LORD, you women. Pay attention to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament and one another a dirge, | 20Listen, you women, to the words of the LORD; open your ears to what he has to say. Teach your daughters to wail; teach one another how to lament. |
| 21for Death has climbed through our windows; it has entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets, young men from the squares. | 21For death has crept in through our windows and has entered our mansions. It has killed off the flower of our youth: Children no longer play in the streets, and young men no longer gather in the squares. |
| 22"Speak as follows: 'This is what the LORD declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field, like newly cut grain after the reaper with no one to gather it. | 22This is what the LORD says: “Bodies will be scattered across the fields like clumps of manure, like bundles of grain after the harvest. No one will be left to bury them.” |
| 23"'This is what the LORD says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth. | 23This is what the LORD says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. |
| 24But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me--that I am the LORD, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the LORD's declaration. | 24But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken! |
| 25"'Look, the days are coming--this is the LORD's declaration--when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: | 25“A time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit— |
| 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.'" | 26the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in the desert in remote places, and yes, even the people of Judah. And like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.” |
| The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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