Jeremiah 9:4-12 - A Nation Characterized By Deceit

⁴ "Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵ They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶ Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me," says the LORD.

⁷ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait for him. ⁹ Shall I not visit them for these things?" says the LORD; "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 passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone." ¹¹ "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? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?"