Jeremiah_Chapter 9

May my head be water, and my eyes be a spring of tears, so that I may cry day and night for the slain women of my people.

May I have a place for travelers to stay in the wilderness, so that I may depart from my people. For they are all adulterers and a deceitful party.

They curved their tongues like bows to lie. They are growing their power in the country, not to be honest, but to add evil to evil, and they do not know me. This is what the Lord has said.

Be careful of your neighbors, and do not trust your brothers. Because brothers deceive and neighbors slander.

They each deceived their neighbors and did not tell the truth. They teach their tongues to lie and work tirelessly to do evil.

Your residence is among deceitful people. They refuse to know me because of their deceit. This is what the Lord has said.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, See, I will melt and refine them. Otherwise, what should I do because of the sins of my people?

Their tongues are poison arrows, and their speech is deceitful. A man speaks peace with his neighbor, but his heart conspires against him.

The Lord said, Will I not punish them for these things? Why not retaliate against such a citizen?

I will cry and mourn for the mountains, and raise my voice and mourn for the grasslands of the wilderness. Because they have all dried up and no one has even passed by. People cannot hear the chirping of livestock, and the birds in the air and the beasts on the ground have fled.

I will turn Jerusalem into a pile of ruins, a dwelling place for wild dogs, and make the cities of Judah desolate with no one to dwell in.

Who is a wise person who can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may speak? Why is the whole land destroyed, scorched like a wilderness, so that no one passes by?

The Lord said, Because this people have abandoned me, they have not followed the law set before them, nor have they obeyed my voice.

Follow only their own stubborn hearts, and follow the Baals as their ancestors taught them.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I will give this people wormwood to eat, and I will give them gall water to drink.

I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their ancestors did not know before. I will also use my sword to pursue them until they are completely destroyed.

This is what the Lord of hosts says: Consider and call for women who are good at singing laments, and send for women who are good at crying,

Ask them to quickly mourn for us, making our tears flow and our eyelids gush with water.

Because I heard a mournful cry from Zion, saying, How have we fallen. We are greatly ashamed. We set aside the soil. People have also demolished our houses.

O women, listen to the word of the Lord and receive the words of his mouth. Teach your children to mourn, and each one to teach their neighbors to sing lamentations.

Because death came up, entered our windows, entered our palaces. To cut off children from the outside and young people from the streets.

You shall say, This is what the Lord has said: The body of a man shall be poured down in the field like dung, and like a handful of grain left by the reapers, with no one to gather it.

This is what the Lord says: Do not boast of the wise in their wisdom, do not boast of the brave in their strength, and do not boast of the wealthy in their wealth.

But those who boast boast because of their understanding, knowing that I am the Lord, and knowing that I am pleased to do mercy, justice, and righteousness in the world, so that I may boast. This is what the Lord has said.

The Lord said, “See, the days are coming, and I will punish all those who have been circumcised but whose hearts have not been circumcised.”,

Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all those who live in the wilderness and shave their hair around them. Because all the nations have not been circumcised, and the hearts of the Israelites have not been circumcised.