Oh that my
head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of
tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people!
02 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging
place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my
people, and go from them! for they be all
adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
03 And they bend their tongues like their bow for
lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon
the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they know not me, saith the Lord.
04 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and
trust ye not in any brother: for every brother
will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will
walk with slanders.
05 And they will deceive every one his neighbour,
and will not speak the truth: they have taught
their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves
to commit iniquity.
06 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the
Lord.
07 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how
shall I do for the daughter of my people?
08 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it
speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his
neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth
his wait.
09 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith
the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a
nation as this?
10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and
wailing, and for the habitations of the
wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned
up, so that none can pass through them; neither
can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the
fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they
are gone.
11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of
dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah
desolate, without an inhabitant.
12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this?
and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land
perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness,
that none passeth through?
13 And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken
my law which I set before them, and have not
obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
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14 But have walked after the imagination of their
own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers
taught them:
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even
this people, with wormwood, and give them water
of gall to drink.
16 I will scatter them also among the heathen,
whom neither they nor their fathers have known:
and I will send a sword after them, till I have
consumed them.
17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and
call for the mourning women, that they may come;
and send for cunning women, that they may come:
18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing
for us, that our eyes may run down with tears,
and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion,
How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded,
because we have forsaken the land, because our
dwellings have cast us out.
20 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, and
let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and
teach your daughters wailing, and every one her
neighbour lamentation.
21 For death is come up into our windows, and is
entered into our palaces, to cut off the children
from without, and the young men from the streets.
22 Speak, Thus saith the Lord, Even the carcases
of men shall fall as dung upon the open field,
and as the handful after the harvestman, and none
shall gather them.
23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man
glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in
his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things
I delight, saith the Lord.
25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will punish all them which are circumcised with
the uncircumcised;
26 Egypt, and Judah, and
Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and
all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in
the wilderness: for all these nations are
uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are
uncircumcised in the heart.
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