Jeremiah 9:6-25
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
I will now refine and test them,
for what else can I do with the daughter of my people?(B)
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks deceit through the mouth.
They all speak friendly words to their neighbors
but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.(C)
9 Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?(D)
10 Take up[b] weeping and wailing for the mountains
and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
both the birds of the air and the animals
have fled and are gone.(E)
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a lair of jackals,
and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.(F)
12 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?(G) 13 And the Lord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accordance with it(H) 14 but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.(I) 15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood and giving them poisonous water to drink.(J) 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.(K)
The People Mourn in Judgment
17 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Consider and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skilled women to come;(L)
18 let them quickly raise a dirge over us,
so that our eyes may run down with tears
and our eyelids flow with water.(M)
19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
“How we are ruined!
We are utterly shamed
because we have left the land,
because they have cast down our dwellings.”(N)
20 Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,
and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;
teach to your daughters a dirge
and each to her neighbor a lament.(O)
21 “Death has come up into our windows;
it has entered our palaces
to cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the squares.”(P)
22 Speak! Thus says the Lord:
“Human corpses shall fall
like dung upon the open field,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
and no one shall gather them.”(Q)
23 Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth;(R) 24 but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.(S)
25 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin:(T)
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