Jeremiah 9

¹ Oh that my head were waters,

² Oh that I had in the wilderness

³ “ They bend their tongue,

⁴ “Everyone beware of his neighbor,

⁵ Friends deceive each other,

⁶ Your habitation is in the middle of deceit.

⁷ Therefore the LORD of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them;

⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow.

⁹ Shouldn’t I punish them for these things? ” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?

¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains, Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled.

¹¹ “ I will make Jerusalem heaps,

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

¹³ The LORD says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.” ¹⁵ Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “ Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”

¹⁷ The LORD of Armies says, “ Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come. Send for the skillful women, that they may come.

¹⁸ Let them make haste

¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘ How we are ruined!

²⁰ Yet hear the LORD ’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.

²¹ For death has come up into our windows.

²² Speak, “ The LORD says, “‘ The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, No one will gather them.’”

²³ The LORD says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.

²⁴ But let him who glories glory in this,

²⁵ “Behold, the days come, ” says the LORD, “ that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”