Jeremiah 9

1Who will give me a travelers’ lodge in the wilderness, that I may leave my people and go away from them? For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors.

2They bend their tongue, their bow, for falsehood; they are not strong in the land for faithfulness. For they go out from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.

3Let each guard against a neighbor, and trust no brother; for every brother surely supplants, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

4Each deceives a neighbor, and they do not speak truth. They have taught their tongues to speak falsehood; they weary themselves doing wrong.

5Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.

6Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts:
Look, I am refining them and testing them;
for what else can I do because of my people’s daughter?

7Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; it speaks deceit. With his mouth one speaks peace to a neighbor, but within himself he sets an ambush.

8Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. Shall I not take vengeance on a nation like this?

9For the mountains I will lift up weeping and lamentation, and for the wilderness pastures, a dirge. For they are burned up, with no one passing through; they do not hear the sound of livestock. From birds of the sky to animals, they have fled; they have gone away.

10I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

11Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that they may declare it? Why has the land perished, burned up like the wilderness, with no one passing through?

12And the LORD said: Because they have abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and have not listened to my voice or walked in it.

13Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.

14Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel:
Look, I will feed this people wormwood, and I will give them poisonous water to drink.

15I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have destroyed them.

16Thus says the LORD of Hosts:
Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come;
send for the skilled women, that they may come. 17Let them hurry and raise a lament over us,
that tears may run down from our eyes
and water flow from our eyelids. 18For the sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
“How we are devastated!
We are deeply ashamed,
for we have left the land,
because they have cast down our dwellings.” 19For hear, women, the word of the LORD;
let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament,
and each woman her companion a dirge. 20For death has come up through our windows;
it has entered our fortresses,
to cut off children from the streets
and young men from the squares. 21Speak: Thus declares the LORD:
“The corpse of humanity will fall like dung on the open field,
like sheaves behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.” 22Thus says the LORD:
Let not the wise boast in their wisdom;
let not the mighty boast in their strength;
let not the rich boast in their wealth. 23But let the one who boasts boast in this:
that they understand and know me,
that I am the LORD,
who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the land;
for in these things I delight,
declares the LORD.

24Look, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish everyone circumcised in uncircumcision:

25Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those who clip the edge of their hair, who live in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.