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I would weep day and night
over the slain of the daughter of My people!
2 Oh that I had in the wilderness
a lodging place for travellers,
that I might leave My people,
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a mob of treacherous people.
3 “Like a drawn bow,
their tongues are bent for lying;
it is not by the pursuit of truth
that they triumph in the land,
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know Me,”
declares the Lord.
4 “Beware of your friends,
and do not trust your brothers,
for every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend will spread slander.
5 Each one will deceive his friend,
and not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.
6 You live in the midst of deception.
Through deception they refuse to know Me,”
declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts says:
“Behold, I will soon refine them and test them,
for what else can I do
with the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongues are deadly arrows;
they speak with deceit.
With his mouth a man speaks peaceably with his neighbour,
but in his heart he waits to ambush.
9 Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge Myself
on a nation such as this?”
10 I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
and raise a lament for the grazing country of the wilderness,
for they have been so scorched
that no one passes through.
The lowing of cattle is no longer heard,
and the birds of the sky and the animals have fled;
they have all gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins;
a habitation of serpents.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without any inhabitants.”
12 Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13 The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken My law that I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, or walked according to it. 14 Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own hearts and go after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
15 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them among nations that they and their fathers have not known, and I will send a sword after them until I have destroyed them.”
17 This is what the Lord of Hosts says:
“Think it through, then summon the women who mourn a dirge;
send for the most skilful of them.
18 Let them come quickly
and start wailing over us,
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
and water may stream from our eyelids.
19 For the sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
‘How devastated we are!
We are completely ashamed,
for we must abandon the land,
and our houses have been torn down’.”
20 O women, hear now the word of the Lord,
and let your ears receive the word of His mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail,
teach each other a dirge.
21 For Death has climbed in through our windows;
and entered our fortresses;
it has cut off the children from the streets,
and the young men from the public squares.
22 “Say, ‘This is what the Lord declares:
‘The carcasses of men will fall
like dung on the open field,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them’.”
23 This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom;
let not the mighty man boast in his might;
let not the rich man boast in his riches;
24 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the Lord, exercising faithful love,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for I delight in these,”
declares the Lord.
25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh: 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who live in the farthest parts of the wilderness. All of these nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”