Jeremiah 9:4-12 - A Nation Characterized By Deceit
4 Take ye heed each 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 deceive each 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, says LORD.
7 Therefore thus says LORD 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 speaks deceit. He speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him. 9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says LORD. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through, nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the 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, who may understand this, and he to whom the mouth of LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?