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A Lament over Zion

^1 (C1)Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the ^(C2)daughter of my people!

^2 (C1)Oh 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 ^(C2)adulterers worshiping idols instead of the LORD,
They are an assembly of ^(C3)treacherous men of weak character, men without integrity.

³ "They ^(C1)bend their tongue like their bow;
Their lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land;
For they ^(C2)proceed from evil to evil,
And they ^(C3)do not know and understand and acknowledge Me," says the LORD.

⁴ "Let everyone ^(C1)beware of his neighbor
And ^(C2)do not trust any brother.
For every ^(C3)brother is a supplanter like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother's heel,
And every neighbor ^(C4)goes around as a slanderer. ^(VR1)

⁵ "Everyone ^(C1)deceives and mocks his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They ^(C2)exhaust themselves with sin and cruelty.

⁶ "Your ^(C1)dwelling is in the midst of deceit oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit;
Through deceit they ^(C2)refuse to know (understand) Me," says the LORD.

⁷ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts,

"Behold, I will refine them through suffering and ^(C1)test them;
For ^(C2)how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

⁸ "Their ^(C1)tongue is a murderous arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one ^(C2)speaks peace to his neighbor,
But in his heart he ^(C3)lays traps and waits in ambush for him.

⁹ "^(C1)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 ^(C1)mountains,
And a funeral dirge for the pastures of the ^(C2)wilderness,
Because they are ^(C3)burned up and desolated so that no one passes through them;
Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle.
Both the ^(C4)birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹ "I will make Jerusalem a ^(C1)heap of ruins,
A haunt and dwelling place of ^(C2)jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a ^(C3)desolation, without inhabitant."

¹² Who is the ^(C1)wise man who may understand this without any doubt? To whom has ^(C2)the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he may declare it? ^(C3)Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?¹³ The LORD said, "Because they have ^(F1)(C1)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,¹⁴ but have ^(C1)walked stubbornly after their own heart and after the ^(C2)Baals, as their ^(C3)fathers taught them,"¹⁵ therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "behold, ^(C1)I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and ^(C2)poisonous water to drink.¹⁶ "I will also ^(C1)scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the ^(C2)sword after them until I have annihilated them."

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD of hosts,

"Consider and call for the ^(C1)mourning women to come;
Send for the ^(C2)wailing women to come.

¹⁸ "Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us,
That our ^(C1)eyes may shed tears
And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹ "For a sound of ^(C1)wailing is heard coming from Zion:
'^(C2)How we are ruined!
We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed,
Because we have ^(C3)left the land,
Because they have torn down our dwellings.'"

²⁰ Now hear the word of the LORD, O you ^(C1)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.

²¹ For ^(C1)death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces,
Cutting off the ^(C2)children from the streets
And the young men from the town squares.

²² Speak, "Thus says the LORD,
'The dead bodies of men will fall ^(C1)like dung on the open field,
And like sheaves of grain behind the reaper,
And no one will gather them.'" ^(VR1)

²³ Thus says the LORD, "^(C1)Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is ^(C2)mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is ^(C3)rich boast in his temporal satisfactions and earthly abundance;²⁴ but let the one who boasts ^(C1)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 ^(C2)practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I ^(C3)delight," says the LORD. ^(VR1)

²⁵ "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised physically and yet ^(C1)uncircumcised spiritually— ^{(VR1)26 (F1)}Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and ^(C1)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 ^(C2)uncircumcised in heart."