Jeremiah
9
- 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.
- 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.
- "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.
- "Beware of your friends; do not trust
your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.
- Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks
the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with
sinning.
- You live in the midst of deception; in their
deceit they refuse to acknowledge me," declares the LORD.
- 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 ?
- 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.
- Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this
?"
- 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.
- "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."
- 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 ?
- 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.
- Instead, they have followed the stubbornness
of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them."
- 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.
- 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."
- This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Consider
now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.
- Let them come quickly and wail over us till
our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.
- 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.'"
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.'"
- 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,
- 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.
- "The days are coming," declares
the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh
--
- 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."
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