1Oh, that my head were water, and my eyes a spring of tears! Then I could weep day and night for the killed of the daughter of my people.
2Oh, that I had a shelter in the desert where travellers stay! Then I could leave my people and go away from them. For they are all adulterers, a crowd of treacherous men.
3They bend their tongues like a bow to shoot lies. They have not grown strong for the truth in the land. They go on from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.
4Be careful, every one of you, of your neighbour, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will surely cheat, and every neighbour goes about spreading slander.
5They all deceive their neighbours, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They wear themselves out doing wrong.
6Your home is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.
7So this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will melt them and test them. What else can I do for the daughter of my people?"
8Their tongue is an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
9"Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Shall I not take revenge on a nation like this?"
10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and sing a song of grief for the pastures of the desert. For they are burned up, and no one passes through them. No one hears the sound of cattle. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
11I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals. I will make the cities of Judah empty, with no one living there.
12Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he can explain it? Why has the land been destroyed and burned up like a desert, so that no one passes through?
13The LORD says, "It is because they have left my law, which I set before them. They have not obeyed my voice or lived by it."
14"Instead they have followed the stubborn desires of their own hearts, and followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them."
15So this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink."
16"I will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send a sword after them, until I have destroyed them."
17This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Think about it, and call for the women who mourn, so that they may come. Send for the women who are skilled at it, so that they may come."
18Let them hurry and start a wailing for us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and water may pour from our eyelids.
19"For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are covered with shame, because we have left the land, because our houses have thrown us out.'"
20Yet hear the word of the LORD, you women, and let your ears take in the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and each woman teach her neighbour a song of grief.
21For death has climbed in at our windows and come into our palaces. It cuts off the children outside, and the young men from the streets.
22Say, "This is what the LORD says: 'The dead bodies of men will lie like dung on the open field, like cut corn behind the harvester, and no one will gather them.'"
23This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the strong man boast in his strength. Let not the rich man boast in his riches."
24"But let anyone who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who shows lovingkindness, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, says the LORD."
25"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all those who are circumcised along with the uncircumcised:"