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¹ 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! ^2 [a]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 are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ³ And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for ^[b]truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah. ⁴ Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵ And they will ^[c]deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶ Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.

⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. ⁹ Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; 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 pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone. ¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. ¹² Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through? ¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of ^[d]gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful 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 ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because ^[e]they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. ²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, The dead bodies 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 Jehovah, 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 hath understanding, and knoweth me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision: ²⁶ Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.