¹If only I had a head full of water

– For my eye is a source of tears –

Then I would weep day and night

For the casualties of the daughter of my people.

²If only I had in the desert a traveller's lodging place

So that I could leave my people

And go away from them,

“For they are all adulterers

– An assembly of traitors.

³And they have spoken deceitfully;

Their bow is false,

And they have not become strong in the land

In a faithful way,

For they have gone from one bad thing to another,

And they have not known me,

Says the Lord.

⁴Let each man beware of his neighbour,

And do not trust any brother,

For every brother will defraud and defraud,

And every neighbour will go about slandering.

⁵And each man will deceive his neighbour,

And they will not speak the truth.

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They have exerted themselves in acting iniquitously.

⁶You are seated in the midst of deceit;

It is through deceit

That they refuse to know me,

Says the Lord.”

⁷That is why this is what the Lord of hosts says:

“I am about to refine them,

And I will test them,

For how else should I act

In view of the daughter of my people?

⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

It speaks deceit.

With his mouth a man speaks peaceably with his neighbour,

But inwardly he plans his plot.

⁹Shall I not visit them on account of these things,

Says the Lord,

And shall my being not be avenged

On a nation such as this?

¹⁰I will bring forth weeping and lamentation for the hills,

And a dirge for the pastures in the desert,

For they have been burned,

So that no man passes through,

And no sound of cattle has been heard.

Both birds of the sky and cattle have migrated

And have gone away.

¹¹And I will turn Jerusalem into heaps of stones

– An abode for jackals –

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation

Without any inhabitant.

¹²Who is the wise man who understands this, and to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, so that he may proclaim it? Why should the land perish, being burned up like a desert, with no-one passing through?” ¹³And the Lord said, “Because of them deserting my law, which I gave in their presence, but they did not heed my voice, and they did not walk in it, ¹⁴and they walked according to the obstinacy of their heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them ¹⁵– because of that – this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to feed wormwood to this people and to give them hemlock water to drink. ¹⁶And I will scatter them among nations which neither they nor their fathers knew, and I will send the sword after them until I have made an end of them.’ ” ¹⁷This is what the Lord of hosts, says:

“Take note

And call for the women who lament,

So that they come,

And send for women skilled in the art,

So that they come.

¹⁸And let them hasten to recite a lamentation on our account,

So that our eyes run with tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹For the sound of lamentation is heard,

Coming from Zion,

‘How we have been plundered;

We have been very much put to shame,

For we have abandoned the land,

For our tent sites have been overthrown.’ ”

²⁰But, you women,

Hear the word of the Lord,

And let your ears accept the word of his mouth,

And teach your daughters lamentation,

And let each teach her neighbour a dirge.

²¹For death has come through our windows;

It has entered our castles

To cut down the infant outside

And the youth in the streets.

²²Say, “This is what the Lord says:

‘And a man's dead body will fall

Like dung on the surface of a field,

And like sheaves behind the reaper,

With no-one gathering them up.’

²³This is what the Lord says:

‘Do not let the wise man boast of his wisdom,

And do not let the valiant warrior boast of his valiance,

And do not let the wealthy man boast of his wealth,

²⁴But rather let the boaster boast in this:

Being instructed and knowing me,

For I, the Lord,

Act with kindness, justice and righteousness in the land,

For it is in these that I delight,

Says the Lord.

²⁵Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will visit everyone who is circumcised but in uncircumcision ²⁶– Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all who have had their sidelocks cut, those who live in the desert – for all the Gentiles are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.’ ”

Reference(s) in Chapter 9: v.24 ↔ 1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17.