Jeremiah 9:1-18 ▼

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 (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men, That I might leave my people And go away from them! For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the LORD], [They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].

3 “They bend their tongue like their bow; [Their] lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me,” says the LORD.

4 “Let everyone beware of his neighbor And do not trust any brother. For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother’s heel], And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.

5 “Everyone deceives and mocks his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They exhaust themselves with sin and cruelty.

6 “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; Through deceit they refuse to know (understand) Me,” says the LORD.

7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them; For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

8 “Their tongue is a murderous arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But in his heart he lays traps and waits in ambush for him.

9 “Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shall I not avenge Myself On such a nation as this?

10 “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness, Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them]; Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt and dwelling place of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

12 Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

13 The LORD said, “Because they have turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it,

14 but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

15 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

16 I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”

17 Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider and call for the mourning women to come; Send for the wailing women to come.

18 “Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.