Jeremiah 9:17-26 ▼

17 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Carefully consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come!

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

19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How we are destroyed! We are put to great shame, For we have left the land Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

20 Indeed, hear the word of Yahweh, O you women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a funeral lamentation.

21 For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To cut off the infants from the streets, The choice men from the open squares.

22 Speak, “Thus declares Yahweh, ‘The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.’”

23 Thus says Yahweh, “Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might; let not a rich man boast in his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Yahweh who shows lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares Yahweh.

25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised—

26 Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”