Jeremiah 9:3-26 - Judah's Failures

³ And they will bend their tongue, their bow, a lie: and they were not strong for faithfulness upon the land; for from evil to evil they went forth, and they knew me not, says Jehovah.

⁴ Watch ye each from his neighbor, and to any brother ye shall not trust, for every brother deceiving, will deceive, and every neighbor will go tale-bearing. ⁵ And they will mock, a man upon his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth: they taught their tongue to speak falsehood, they wearied themselves to sin. ⁶ Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit; by deceit they refused to know me, says Jehovah.

⁷ For this, thus said Jehovah of armies, Behold me melting them, and I tried them; for how shall I do for the face of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue a deadly arrow, speaking deceit; in his mouth he will speak peace to his neighbor, and be will lay his wait in his midst ⁹ For these things, shall I not review upon them? says Jehovah; or shall not my soul be avenged upon a nation such as this?

¹⁰ For the mountains I will lift up weeping and lamentation, and for the seats of the desert, a song of mourning, for they were burnt, from not a man passing through; and they heard not the voice of cattle: from the bird of the heavens and even to the cattle, they fled away, they departed. ¹¹ And I gave Jerusalem for heaps and a dwelling of jackals; and the cities of Judah I will give a desolation from none inhabiting.

¹² Who the wise man and he will understand this? and which the mouth of Jehovah spake to him, and he will announce it, for what the land perished it was burnt as the desert, from not being passed through.

¹³ And Jehovah will say, For their forsaking my law which I gave before their face, and they heard not to my voice, and they went not in it. ¹⁴ And they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baalims which their fathers taught them. ¹⁵ For this, thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: Behold me causing this people to eat wormwood, and I gave them to drink water of poison. ¹⁶ And I scattered them in the nations which they knew not, they and their fathers: and I sent after them the sword till I consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus said Jehovah of armies, Give heed, and call ye for the wailing women, and they shall come forth; and send ye to the wise women, and they shall come forth. ¹⁸ And they shall hasten and lift up a lamentation for us, and our eyes shall go down with tears, and our eyelashes shall shake out waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of lamentation was heard from Zion: How were we laid waste! we were greatly ashamed, for we forsook the land, and cast away our dwellings

²⁰ For hear, ye women, the word of Jehovah, and your ear shall receive the word of his mouth, and teach ye your daughters lamentation, and a woman her neighbor, the song of mourning. ²¹ For death came up into our windows, it came into our palaces to cut off the child from without, the young men from the streets.

²² Speak: Thus says Jehovah, The carcasses of men fell as dung upon the face of the field, as the handful after the reaper, and none gathering.

²³ Thus said Jehovah, The wise shall not boast in his wisdom, and the strong shall not boast in his strength; the rich shall not boast in his riches: ²⁴ But he boasting shall boast in this, to understand and know me, that I am Jehovah, doing mercy, judgment and justice in the earth: for in these I delighted, says Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and I reviewed over all the circumcised with the uncircumcised; ²⁶ Over Egypt and over Judah and over Edom, and over the sons of Ammon, and over Moab, and over all cut off of the extremity dwelling in the desert: for all the nations being uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel uncircumcised of heart