Jeremiah 9

9 ¹Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! ²Oh, that I had in the wilderness a traveler's lodging, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors.

³They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood, not faithfulness, has grown strong in the land. They go from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares our Father.

⁴Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother; for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about slandering.

⁵Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have trained their tongues to speak lies, wearing themselves out with wrongdoing. ⁶You live in the midst of deceit; through their deceit they refuse to know me, declares our Father.

⁷Therefore this is what the Father of heaven's armies says: I am about to refine them and test them, for how else should I act, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit. With his mouth each one speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him. ⁹Should I not punish them for these things? declares our Father. Should I not bring justice upon a nation such as this? ¹⁰"I will weep and wail for the mountains, and raise a lament for the pastures of the wilderness, for they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. From the birds of the sky to the beasts, all have fled and gone. ¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."

¹²Who is wise enough to grasp this? To whom has our Father's mouth spoken, to explain why the land is ruined, scorched like a wilderness, with no one crossing it?

¹³And our Father says: Because they abandoned my instruction, which I gave them, and did not obey my voice or walk in it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. ¹⁵So the Father of heaven's armies, our Father of Israel, says: I will feed this people bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations they and their fathers never knew, and send a sword after them until I destroy them.

¹⁷This is what the Father of heaven's armies says: Consider! Call for the women skilled in mourning; send for those practiced in lament. ¹⁸Let them hurry and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids stream with water.

¹⁹For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are ruined! We are utterly ashamed, for we have left the land, for they have torn down our dwellings. ²⁰Now hear the word of our Father, you women; let your ears receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters a wailing, and each one her neighbor a lament. ²¹For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.

²²Speak: This is what our Father declares: The dead bodies of people will fall like manure on the open field, like bundles of grain left behind the harvester, with no one to gather them.

²³This is what our Father says: Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, let not the strong boast in his strength, let not the rich boast in his riches; ²⁴but let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me—that I am your Father, who acts with faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight, declares our Father.

²⁵Look, the days are coming, declares our Father, when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh. ²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who clip the hair at their temples and live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are hard-hearted.