Jeremiah 9
Open in the reader1If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.
2“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the He-Who-Is.
3“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.
4Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.
5You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares He-Who-Is.
6Therefore this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
7Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
8Should I not punish them for these things? declares He-Who-Is. Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
9I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
10“And I will make Foundation-of-Peace a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Praised a desolation, without inhabitant.”
11Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of He-Who-Is spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?
12And He-Who-Is answered, “It is because they have forsaken My teaching, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice.
13Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after The-Ruler, as their fathers taught them.”
14Therefore this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts, the God of Strives-with-God, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
15I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
16This is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.
17Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water.
18For the sound of wailing is heard from Marker: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”
19Now, O women, hear the word of He-Who-Is. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament.
20For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
21Declare that this is what He-Who-Is says: “The corpses of men will fall like dung upon the open field, like newly cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”
22This is what He-Who-Is says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.
23But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am He-Who-Is, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth— for I delight in these things,” declares He-Who-Is.
24“Behold, the days are coming,” declares He-Who-Is, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—
25Two-Straits, Praised, Red, Kindred, From-the-Father, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Strives-with-God is uncircumcised in heart.”