Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD, "Let not the wise man rejoice in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength; neither the rich man in his riches.

"Upon the mountains will I take up a lamentation and sorrowful cry, and a mourning upon the fair plains of the wilderness: Namely, how they are so burnt up, that no man goeth there any more. Yea, a man shall not hear one beast cry there. Birds and cattle are all gone from thence.

I will make Jerusalem also a heap of stones, and a den of venomous worms. And I will make the cities of Judah so waste, that no man shall dwell therein."

What man is so wise, as to understand this? Or to whom hath the LORD spoken by mouth, that he may show this, and say, "O thou land, why perishest thou so? Wherefore art thou so burnt up, and like a wilderness that no man goeth through?"

Yea the LORD himself told the same unto them, that forsook his law, and kept not the thing that he gave them in commandment, neither lived thereafter:

but followed the wickedness of their own hearts, and served strange gods, as their fathers taught them.

Therefore, thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them gall to drink.

I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword among them, to persecute them, until I bring them to naught."

Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "Look that ye call for mourning wives, and send for wise women: that they come shortly,

But who so will rejoice, let him rejoice in this: that he understandeth, and knoweth me. For I am the LORD, which do mercy, equity and righteousness upon the earth. Therefore have I pleasure in such things, sayeth the LORD."

Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ears regard the words of his mouth: that ye may learn your daughters to mourn, and that every one may teach her neighbouress to make lamentation.

and sing a mourning song of you: that the tears may fall out of our eyes, and that our eyelids may gush out of water.

O Who will give my head water enough, and a well of tears for mine eyes, that I may weep night and day for the slaughter of my people?

For there is a lamentable noise heard of Zion: 'O how are we so sore destroyed? O how are we so piteously confounded? We must forsake our own natural country, and we are shot out of our own lodgings.'"

The Egyptians, the Jews, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the shaven Midianites that dwell in the wilderness. For all the Gentiles are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart."

They bend their tongues like bows, to shoot out lies: As for the truth, they may nothing away with all in the world. For they go from one wickedness to another, and hold nothing of me, sayeth the LORD.

Namely, thus: Death is climbing up into our windows, he is come into our houses, to destroy the child before the door, and the young man in the street.

But tell thou plainly, thus sayeth the LORD, "The dead bodies of men shall lie upon the ground, as the dung upon the field, and as the hay after the mower, and there shall be no man to take them up."

"Behold, the time cometh," sayeth the LORD, "that I will visit all them whose foreskin is uncircumcised.

Would God that I had a cottage somewhere far from folk, that I might leave my people, and go from them: for they be all adulterers and a shrinking sort.

Yea, one must keep himself from another; no man may safely trust his own brother. For one brother undermineth another, and one neighbour begileth another.

Yea, one dissesembleth with another, and they deal with no truth. They have practiced their tongues to lie, and taken great pains to do mischief.

Their tongues are like sharp arrows, to speak deceit. With their mouth they speak peaceably to their neighbour, but privily they lay wait for him.

They have set their stole in the midst of deceit, and for very dissembling falsity they will not know me, sayeth the LORD.

Should I not punish them for these things, sayeth the LORD? Or should I not be avenged of any such people as this?

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for what should I else do to my people?