Jeremiah 9:12-24

English Standard Version

¹²^(A)Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined ^(B)and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the Lord says: ^(C)“Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, ¹⁴but ^(D)have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(E)Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them ^(F)poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶^(G)I will scatter them among the nations ^(H)whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will ^(I)send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts:
^(J)“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
    send for the skillful women to come;
¹⁸let them make haste ^(K)and raise a wailing over us,
    ^(L)that our eyes may run down with tears
    and our eyelids flow with water.
¹⁹For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ^(M)‘How we are ruined!
    We are utterly shamed,
because we have left the land,
    because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

²⁰Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
    and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a lament,
    and each to her neighbor a dirge.
²¹For death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces,
^(N)cutting off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.
²²Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,
^(O)‘The dead bodies of men shall fall
    like dung upon the open field,
^(P)like sheaves after the reaper,
    and none shall gather them.’”

²³Thus says the Lord: ^(Q)“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, ²⁴but ^(R)let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. ^(S)For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”