Old/New Testament

¹ Oh, if only my head were a spring of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears
so that I might weep day and night
    for the slain of the daughter of my people.
² Would that I could find in the desert
    a wayside shelter for travelers
so that I might depart from my people
    and leave them far behind.
For all of them are adulterers,
    a faithless mob of traitors.
³ Their tongues are like devious weapons,
    bent like a drawn bow.
With falsehood rather than truth
    they have gained power in the land.
They commit one crime after another,
    but they do not acknowledge me, says the Lord.
⁴ Each of you should be on guard against your neighbor
    and place no trust in a brother.
For everyone seeks to supplant his brother, as Jacob did,
    and every friend is a slanderer.
⁵ They all deceive each other;
    no one speaks the truth.
They have trained their tongues in the art of lying;
    immersed in iniquity, they cannot repent.
⁶ With their repeated acts of oppression and deceit,
    they refuse to acknowledge me, says the Lord.
⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts:
    Now I will refine and test them.
    How else should I deal with this people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
    their mouth utters words of deceit.
They speak cordially with their neighbors,
    but inwardly, they are plotting to ambush them.
⁹ For such deceitful dealings
    shall I not punish them, says the Lord,
and shall I not exact vengeance
    on such a nation?

¹⁰ Raise up cries of weeping and lamentation for the mountains
    and chant a dirge for the pasture lands,
because they have been so scorched
    that no one passes there,
    and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
Birds of the air and the animals:
    all have fled and are gone.
¹¹ I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,
    a lair for jackals,
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
    so that no one can live there.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts:
    Listen to my command! Summon the mourning women;
    send for those who are most skilled in this regard.
¹⁸ Let them come quickly
    and raise a dirge for us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears
    and our cheeks may be wet with weeping.
¹⁹ May a sound of lamenting be heard in Zion,
    “Great is our ruin;
    intense is our shame.
We must leave our land;
    our homes have been destroyed.”^[a]
20 Listen, you women, to the word of the Lord;
    let your ears receive the message he imparts.
²¹ Death has climbed through our windows
    and has entered our palaces.
It has cut down the children in the streets
    and the young people in the public squares.
²² The corpses of the slain will be strewn
    like dung on an open field,
like sheaves left behind by the reaper
    with no one to gather them.

²³ Thus says the Lord:
    Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom,
or the strong man boast of his strength,
    or the rich man boast of his wealth.
²⁴ But if any wish to boast,
    let them boast of this:
    that they understand and know me.
For I am the Lord who governs the earth
    with unfailing love, justice, and righteousness.
In these things I delight,
    says the Lord.

Do not adopt the ways of the nations
    or become frightened at the signs in the heavens,^[c]
    even though the nations are terrified of them.
³ For the carved images of the nations are powerless;
    they are nothing more than wood cut from a forest,
fashioned with a knife by craftsmen
⁴     and embellished with silver and gold.
Then they are fastened with hammers and nails
    to prevent them from toppling.
⁵ Like scarecrows in a cucumber field
    they are unable to speak,
and they must be carried from place to place
    since they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
    for they can do no harm,
    nor do they have any power to do good.
⁶ O Lord, there is no one like you;
    you are great,
    and great is the might of your name.
⁷ Who would not fear you,
    O King of the nations?
    This is your due.
Of all the wisest men in the nations
    and throughout all their kingdoms,
    there is no one like you.
⁸ They are all senseless and foolish,
    and the idols they venerate are nothing but wood,
⁹ adorned with beaten silver from Tarshish
    and gold from Ophir.
Their idols are the work of craftsmen and goldsmiths
    and clothed with violet and purple;
    all of them are the product of skilled workers.
¹⁰ But the Lord is the true God;
    he is the living God and the everlasting King.
When confronted with his wrath the earth quakes,
    and no nation can endure his fury.

¹² The Lord made the earth by his power,
    established the world by his wisdom
    and spread out the heavens by his understanding.
¹³ When his voice thunders forth,
    the waters in the heavens are in tumult,
and he brings forth clouds
    from the most remote areas of the earth.
He causes lightning to flash during the rainfall
    and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
¹⁴ Everyone is ignorant and devoid of knowledge;
    every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for the figures he molds are fraudulent,
    lacking even a semblance of breath.
¹⁵ They are worthless, worthy only of mockery;
    when the time of judgment comes
    they will no longer exist.
¹⁶ But not like these is the portion of Jacob,
    for he is the Maker of all things,
and Israel is the tribe of his heritage;
    the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up your belongings and depart from the land,
    you who are living under siege.
¹⁸ For thus says the Lord:
    This time I am determined to cast out
    the inhabitants of this land,
and I will inflict such distress on them
    that they will find it difficult to bear.
¹⁹ I face disaster because of my injuries.
    My wounds are incurable.
However, I thought, “This is my punishment,
    and somehow I must endure it.”
²⁰ My tent has been destroyed,
    and all of its ropes are severed.
My children have left me,
    and they are no more.
No one remains to help me pitch my tent again
    or to put up its curtains.
²¹ The shepherds have proved to be stupid;
    they failed to search for the Lord.
As a result, they have not prospered,
    and their entire flock is scattered.
²² Listen! There is a tremendous noise,
    and it comes ever closer;
    a great uproar from the land of the north;
the towns of Judah will be reduced to a desert
    and become a lair for jackals.

²³ I am finally aware, O Lord,
    that man is not in control of his destiny
and that it is not in his power
    to determine the course of his life.
²⁴ Correct me, O Lord,
    but do so with moderation,
and not in your anger,
    or you will reduce me to nothing.
²⁵ Pour forth your wrath on the nations
    that refuse to acknowledge you,
as well as on the tribes
    that refuse to invoke your name.
For they have devoured Jacob;
    they have devoured and made an end of him
    and laid waste his homeland.

¹³ For you have as many gods
    as you have towns, O Judah.
And you have as many altars to offer sacrifice to Baal
    as there are streets in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ What right does my beloved have to be in my house
    when she perpetrates such vile deeds?
Can vows and sacrificial meat
    turn away the disaster that threatens you
    and allow you to exult?
¹⁶ The Lord once called you a green olive tree
    that was filled with leaves and fruit.
But now, with the roar of a mighty storm,
    he will set it ablaze,
    and its branches will be consumed.

¹⁸ I was aware of this, O Lord,
    because you had made it known to me
    then you revealed to me their evil deeds.
¹⁹ I had been like a trusting lamb
    that was being led to the slaughter.
And I was not aware about the schemes
    that they were plotting against me, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;
    let us cut him off from the land of the living
    so that his name will no longer be remembered.”
²⁰ O Lord of hosts, you who judge righteously
    and test the heart and the mind,
allow me to behold your vengeance on them,
    for to you I have committed my cause.