CHAPTER 9

1 Who will make my head waters And mine eye a fountain of tears! Then would I bewail, day and night, The slain of the daughter of my people.

2 Who will set me in the desert, In the lodging of travelers! Then would I leave my people And depart from them: For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of perfidious men.

3 And they shoot lies with their tongue as with a bow; But not for truth are they strong in the land; For from evil to evil they proceed; (1:462) And me they know not, saith Jehovah.

4 And every one of his friend take ye heed, And in a brother trust ye not; For every brother by supplanting will supplant, And every friend walks fraudulently:

5 And a man deceives his neighbor, And the truth he speaks not; They have taught their tongues to speak falsehood; With doing evil they weary themselves.

6 Thou dwellest in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse To know me, saith Jehovah. (1:469)

7 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Behold, I will try them, and will prove them; For how should I deal With the daughter of my people?

8 A sharpened arrow is their tongue, Falsehood it speaks; His mouth speaks peace to his neighbor, But within he sets up intrigues.

9 For this shall I not visit, saith Jehovah, On such a nation as this Shall not my soul be avenged?

10 For the mountains will I raise up weeping and wailing, For the pastures of the wilderness, lamentation; Because they are laid waste, So that there is not a man passing through, And they hear not the voice of cattle; From the bird of heaven to the beast. Have they fled, have they departed. (1:475)

11 I will also make Jerusalem heaps, A place for dragons; And the cities of Judah will I make a waste, So that there shall be no inhabitant.

12 Who is a wise man to understand this? And to whom has Jehovah’s mouth spoken, That he may declare why the land is to perish — Is to be laid waste like the desert, So that no man should pass through? (1:480)

13 Then Jehovah said, — Because they have forsaken my law, Which I have set before them, And hearkened not to my voice, Nor walked according to it;

14 But walked after the imaginations Of their own hearts, and after Baalim, As their fathers taught them;

15 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, The God of Israel, — Behold, I will feed this people with bitterness, And will give them the water of gall to drink;

16 I will also scatter them among the nations, Whom they have not known nor their fathers, And I will send after them the sword, Until I shall have consumed them.

17 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Attend ye and call for the mourning women, That they may come, And send for those who are skillful, That they may come.

18 And let them hasten and make a wailing for us, That our eyes may let fall tears, And our eyelids drop down waters. (1:489)

19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Sion, “How we are wasted! How greatly shamed! Because we have left the land, They have cast down our dwellings.”

20 Therefore hear, ye women, the word of Jehovah, And let your ears receive the word of his mouth, And teach your daughters wailing, And each one her friend lamentation:

21 For come up is death to our windows, It has entered into our palaces, To cut off the infirm from the street, The young men in the broad places. (1:493)

22 Speak, thus saith Jehovah, fall shall the carcasses of men As dung on the face of the field, And as the handful after the reaper, And none gathering it.

23 Thus saith Jehovah, — Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, And let not the brave glory in his courage, Let not the rich glory in his riches;

24 But in this let him glory who glorieth, In understanding, and in knowing me, That I am Jehovah, who doeth mercy, Judgment and righteousness in the land; For in these things I delight, saith Jehovah. (1:502)

25 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, That I will visit every one circumcised, Who is in uncircumcision, —

26 Egypt and Judah and Edom, The sons of Ammon and Moab, And all those who are in extreme recesses, Who dwell in the wilderness; For all these nations are uncircumcised, And the whole house of Israel, They are uncircumcised in heart.