¹If only my head were a spring of water,[#9.1 8:23 in Heb]

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

I would weep day and night

for the wounds of my people.

²If only I could flee for shelter in the desert,[#9.2 9:1 in Heb]

to leave my people

for they are all adulterers,

³They bend their tongues like bows

they are renowned in the land,

They go from bad to worse.

They don’t know me!

⁴Be wary of your friends!

Don’t trust your sibling!

Every sibling is a cheater,

⁵One cheats the other;

no one tells the truth;

⁶You live in a world of deceit,

and in their deceit

they refuse to know me,

⁷Therefore, the LORD of heavenly forces proclaims:

I’m going to refine and test them,

for what else can I do with my people?

⁸Their tongue is a lethal arrow;

their words are deceitful.

They wish their neighbors well,

but in their hearts plot their ruin.

⁹Shouldn’t I punish them for this?

shouldn’t I avenge such a nation?

¹⁰I will weep and wail for the mountains,

and lament for the grazing lands in the wilderness.

They are dried up and deserted;

no sound of the flocks is heard;

no sign of birds or animals is seen;

¹¹I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins,

a den for wild dogs.

I will make the towns of Judah a wasteland, without inhabitant.

¹²Who is wise enough to understand this?

Who has been taught by the LORD

and can therefore explain it?

Why has the land been reduced to rubble

and laid waste like a desert,

¹³The LORD says: It is because they have abandoned my Instruction that I gave them, and haven’t obeyed or followed it.

¹⁴Instead, they have followed their own willful hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

¹⁵Therefore, this is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to feed this people bitter food and give them poison to drink.

¹⁶I will scatter them among nations about whom neither they nor their ancestors have ever heard. I will pursue them with the sword until all are gone.

¹⁷The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims:

Pay attention!

Summon the women who mourn,

send for those best trained,

¹⁸Hurry!

Let them weep for us

so that our eyes fill up with tears

¹⁹The sound of sobbing

is heard from Zion:

“We’re devastated!

We’re so ashamed!

We have to leave the land

²⁰Women, hear the LORD ’s word.

Listen closely to the word

from his mouth:

²¹Death has climbed through our windows;

it has entered our fortresses

²²Declare what the LORD says:

Dead bodies will lie

like dung on the fields,

like bundles of grain after the harvest,

²³The LORD proclaims:

the learned should not boast of their knowledge,

²⁴No, those who boast should boast in this:

that they understand and know me.

I am the LORD who acts with kindness,

justice, and righteousness in the world,

²⁵The time is coming, declares the LORD , when I will deal with everyone who is physically circumcised:

²⁶whether they are Egyptians or Judeans, Edomites or Ammonites, Moabites or the desert dwellers who cut the hair on their foreheads. All these nations are really uncircumcised; even the people of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.