Jeremiah 9
New International Version - Jeremiah 9 << | >> 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152 9:1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. 9:2 Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. 9:3 'They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,' declares the Lord. 9:4 'Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. 9:5 Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. 9:6 You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,' declares the Lord. 9:7 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? 9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. 9:9 Should I not punish them for this?' declares the Lord. 'Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?' 9:10 I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone. 9:11 'I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.' 9:12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? 9:13 The Lord said, 'It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 9:14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them.' 9:15 Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them.' 9:17 This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. 9:18 Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. 9:19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.' ' 9:20 Now, O women, hear the word of the Lord ; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament. 9:21 Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. 9:22 Say, 'This is what the Lord declares: ' 'The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.' ' 9:23 This is what the Lord says: 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 9:24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord , who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the Lord. 9:25 'The days are coming,' declares the Lord , 'when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh- 9:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.'