A Lament over Zion

¹Oh that my head were waters

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the daughter of my people!

²Oh that I had in the wilderness

A lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men,

That I might leave my people

And go away from them!

For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the Lord ],

[They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].

³“They bend their tongue like their bow;

[Their] lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land;

For they proceed from evil to evil,

And they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me,” says the Lord .

⁴“Let everyone beware of his neighbor

And do not trust any brother.

For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother’s heel],

And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer. [Gen 25:26]

⁵“Everyone deceives and mocks his neighbor

And does not speak the truth.

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They exhaust themselves with sin and cruelty.

⁶“Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit];

Through deceit they refuse to know (understand) Me,” says the Lord .

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them;

For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

⁸“Their tongue is a murderous arrow;

It speaks deceit;

With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,

But in his heart he lays traps and waits in ambush for him.

⁹“Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord .

“Shall I not avenge Myself

On such a nation as this?

¹⁰¶“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness,

Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them];

Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle.

Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

A haunt and dwelling place of jackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

¹³The Lord said, “Because they have turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it,[#9:13 Lit forsaken .]

¹⁴but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

¹⁶I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Consider and call for the mourning women to come;

Send for the wailing women to come.

¹⁸“Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us,

That our eyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹“For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion:

‘How we are ruined!

We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed,

Because we have left the land,

Because they have torn down our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the Lord , O you women,

And let your ear hear the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters a song of mourning,

And each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.

²¹For death has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces,

Cutting off the children from the streets

And the young men from the town squares.

²²Speak, “Thus says the Lord ,

‘The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field,

And like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper,

And no one will gather them.’ ” [Jer 8:2]

²³Thus says the Lord , “Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance;

²⁴but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the Lord who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the Lord . [1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17]

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord , “when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]— [Rom 2:25-29]

²⁶Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those who live in the desert who clip off the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised (sinful, impure), and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”[#9:26 All these nations are related to one another, except Egypt.]