Jeremiah 9

1Oh, that I had a travelers' lodging place in the wilderness, so that I might leave my people and go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, an assembly of traitors.

2They bend their tongue like their bow for falsehood, and not for faithfulness have they grown strong in the land; for from evil to evil they go out, and they do not know me, declares Yahweh.

3Each man, beware of his neighbor, and do not trust any brother; for every brother surely deceives, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

4And each man deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak truth; they have taught their tongue to speak falsehood; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

5Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, declares Yahweh.

6Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: Behold, I am refining them and testing them, for how else can I act because of the daughter of my people?

7Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; it speaks deceit. With his mouth each man speaks peace to his neighbor, but within himself he sets his ambush.

8Shall I not punish them for these things? declares Yahweh. Shall my soul not avenge itself on a nation such as this?

9Over the mountains I will lift up weeping and wailing, and over the pastures of the wilderness a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through, and they do not hear the sound of livestock. From the birds of the heavens to the beasts, they have fled; they are gone.

10And I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

11Who is the wise man who can understand this? To whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, laid waste like the wilderness, with no one passing through?

12And Yahweh said, "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in it,"

13They went after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.

14Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I am feeding this people wormwood, and I will make them drink poisoned water.

15And I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

16Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come.

17Let them hurry and raise a lament over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.

18For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How we are devastated! We are utterly ashamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.”

19For hear the word of Yahweh, O women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach your daughters a lament, and each woman her neighbor a dirge.

20For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our palaces, to cut off the child from outside, the young men from the streets.

21Speak: Thus says Yahweh, “The corpse of man will fall like dung on the face of the field, and like a sheaf behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”

22Thus says Yahweh: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might; let not the rich man boast in his riches.

23But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am Yahweh, who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these I delight, declares Yahweh.

24Look, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will punish everyone circumcised only in foreskin.

25against Egypt, and against Judah, and against Edom, and against the sons of Ammon, and against Moab, and against all those with 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.