Jeremiah 9
1O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, 1 That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 1
2O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; 1 That I might leave my people, and go from them! 1 For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 1
3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: 1 But they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; 1 For they proceed from evil to evil, 1 And they know not me, saith the Lord. 1
4Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, 1 And trust ye not in any brother: 1 For every brother will utterly supplant, 1 And every neighbour will walk with slanders. 1
5And they will deceive every one his neighbour, 1 And will not speak the truth: 1 They have taught their tongue to speak lies, 1 And weary themselves to commit iniquity. 1
6Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; 1 Through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord. 1
7Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, 1 Behold, I will melt them, and try them; 1 For how shall I do for the daughter of my people? 1
8Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: 1 One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, 1 But in heart he layeth his wait. 1
9Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: 1 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 1
10For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, 1 And for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, 1 Because they are burnt up, so that none can pass through them; 1 Neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; 1 Both the fowl of the heavens and the beast 1 Are fled; they are gone. 1
11And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; 1 And I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. 1
12Who is the wise man, that may understand this? 1 And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, 1 For what the land perisheth 1 And is burnt up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? 1
13And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, 1 And have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; 1
14But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, 1 And after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: 1
15Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; 1 Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, 1 And give them water of gall to drink. 1
16I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: 1 And I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. 1
17Thus saith the Lord of hosts, 1 Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; 1 And send for cunning women, that they may come: 1
18And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, 1 That our eyes may run down with tears, 1 And our eyelids gush out with waters. 1
19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! 1 We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, 1 Because our dwellings have cast us out. 1
20Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, 1 And let your ear receive the word of his mouth, 1 And teach your daughters wailing, 1 And every one her neighbour lamentation. 1
21For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, 1 To cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. 1
22Speak, Thus saith the Lord, 1 Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, 1 And as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. 1
23Thus saith the Lord, 1 Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, 1 Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, 1 Let not the rich man glory in his riches: 1
24But let him that glorieth glory in this, 1 That he understandeth and knoweth me, 1 That I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: 1 For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. 1
25Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 1 That I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 1
26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, 1 And all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: 1 For all these nations are uncircumcised, 1 And all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.