Jeremiah 9

Oh that I were in the wilderness, In a lodging-place of wayfaring men, That I might leave my people, And go from them! For they are all adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood; And they are grown mighty in the land, but not for truth; For they proceed from evil to evil, And Me they know not, Saith the LORD.

Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, And trust ye not in any brother; For every brother acteth subtly, And every neighbour goeth about with slanders.

And they deceive every one his neighbour, And truth they speak not; They have taught their tongue to speak lies, They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me, Saith the LORD.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will smelt them, and try them; For how else should I do, Because of the daughter of My people?

Their tongue is a sharpened arrow, It speaketh deceit; One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, But in his heart he layeth wait for him.

Shall I not punish them for these things? Saith the LORD; Shall not My soul be avenged On such a nation as this?

For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, Because they are burned up, so that none passeth through. And they hear not the voice of the cattle; Both the fowl of the heavens and the beast Are fled, and gone.

And I will make Jerusalem heaps, A lair of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, Without an inhabitant.

Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it? Wherefore is the land perished And laid waste like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?

And the LORD saith: Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, And have not hearkened to My voice, neither walked therein;

But have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, And after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may come;

let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion: ‘How are we undone! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.’

Yea, hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation:

‘For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the street, and the young men from the broad places.—

Speak: Thus saith the LORD— And the carcasses of men fall as dung upon the open field, And as the handful after the harvestman, Which none gathereth.’

Thus saith the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, Let not the rich man glory in his riches;

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth Me, That I am the LORD who exercise mercy, justice, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, Saith the LORD.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision:

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair polled, that dwell in the wilderness; For all the nations are uncircumcised, But all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.