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O that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night

for the slain of my poor people!

O that I had in the desert

a traveler’s lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all adulterers,

a band of traitors.

They bend their tongues like bows;

they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know me, says the L ord.

Beware of your neighbors,

and put no trust in any of your kin;

for all your kin are supplanters,

and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer.

They all deceive their neighbors,

and no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongues to speak lies;

they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.

Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit!

They refuse to know me, says the L ord.

Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts:

I will now refine and test them,

for what else can I do with my sinful people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceit through the mouth.

They all speak friendly words to their neighbors,

but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.

Shall I not punish them for these things? says the L ord;

and shall I not bring retribution

on a nation such as this?

Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,

and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,

because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard;

both the birds of the air and the animals

have fled and are gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

a lair of jackals;

and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the L ord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the L ord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

The People Mourn in Judgment

Thus says the L ord of hosts:

Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skilled women to come;

let them quickly raise a dirge over us,

so that our eyes may run down with tears,

and our eyelids flow with water.

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

“How we are ruined!

We are utterly shamed,

because we have left the land,

because they have cast down our dwellings.”

Hear, O women, the word of the L ord,

and let your ears receive the word of his mouth;

teach to your daughters a dirge,

and each to her neighbor a lament.

“Death has come up into our windows,

it has entered our palaces,

to cut off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.”

Speak! Thus says the L ord:

“Human corpses shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

like sheaves behind the reaper,

and no one shall gather them.”

²³ Thus says the L ord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; ²⁴but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the L ord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the L ord.

²⁵ The days are surely coming, says the L ord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: ²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Let them, he says, take up for us a wailing, and let our eyes come down to tears, and let our eyelids flow down into waters These are hyperbolical words, and yet they do not exceed the intensehess of the coming vengeance: for it was not in vain that he said at the begSnning of the chapter, “Who will make my head waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears?” As then the greatness of the calamity could be expressed by no words, the Prophet was constrained to adopt these hyperbolical expressions: Let them then take up for us a wailing, that our eyes may come down to tears: and this he said, because he saw that he was heard with dry eyes, and that the people disregarded what had been denounced:, when yet all ought to have been smitten with fear, from the least to the greatest. As then the Prophet saw that their contempt was so brutal, he says, that when lainenters came, there would then be the time for wailing, not indeed the seasonable time; but it is the same as though he had said, that the Jews would then find out how insensible they had been, in not having in due time considered the judgment of God. ²⁵¹²⁵¹     I render the verses thus, —
   17. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, bethink yourselves; And call for mourning women, that they may come; Yea, for the skillful send, that they may come,
   18. And hasten, and raise for us a wailing, That our eyes may pour forth tears, And our eyelids drop down waters.
    — Ed. It follows —

²⁵¹ I render the verses thus, — 17. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, bethink yourselves; And call for mourning women, that they may come; Yea, for the skillful send, that they may come, 18. And hasten, and raise for us a wailing, That our eyes may pour forth tears, And our eyelids drop down waters. — Ed.