1 Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them! for they are all adulterers, a congregation of rebels. 3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evil to evil, and they did not recognize me, said the LORD.
4 Take heed each one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. 5 And they will deceive each one his neighbour and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies and weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
7 Therefore thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Behold, I will melt them and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? 8 Their tongue is as a sharp arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth but in heart he lays in wait. 9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Upon the mountains I will lift up weeping and wailing and lamentation upon the habitations of the wilderness because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and even the beasts of the earth are fled; they are gone. 11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
12 Who is the wise man that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken that he may declare for what cause the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness that no one passes through? 13 And the LORD said, Because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not heard my voice, neither walked therein, 14 but have walked after the imagination of their own heart and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them, 15 Therefore thus hath the LORD of the hosts the God of Israel said: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among Gentiles whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.
17 Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Consider ye and call for the mourning women that they may come and send for cunning women that they may come, 18 and let them make haste and take up a wailing for us that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters. 19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we destroyed! We are greatly confounded. Why have we forsaken the land? Why have our dwellings cast us out?
20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth and teach your daughters wailing and each one her neighbour lamentation. 21 For death is come up into our windows and is entered into our palaces to cut off the children from without and the young men from the streets. 22 Speak, Thus hath the LORD said, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field and as the handful after the harvestman, and there shall be none to gather them.
23 Thus hath the LORD said, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; 24 but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands me and knows me, that I am the LORD who does mercy, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, said the LORD.
25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will visit all those who are circumcised with the uncircumcised: 26 Egypt and Judah and Edom and the sons of Ammon and Moab and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all the Gentiles are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.