Jeremiah 9

¹ Who will find me a wayfarer’s shelter in the desert, for me to quit my people, and leave them far behind? For all of them are adulterers, a conspiracy of traitors.

² They bend their tongue like a bow; not truth but falsehood predominates in the land; yes, they go from crime to crime. But Yahweh, they do not acknowledge him.

³ Let each be on his guard against his friend, be mistrustful of your brother, for every brother is a very Jacob, and every friend a diligent slanderer.

⁴ Each deceives the other, they do not speak the truth, they have accustomed their tongues to lying, they are corrupt, incapable of

⁵ repentance. Fraud after fraud! Deceit after deceit! They refuse to acknowledge Yahweh.

⁶ And so – Yahweh Sabaoth says this: Look, I will now test them in the crucible – but how am I to deal with their wickedness?

⁷ Their tongue is a deadly arrow, the words they utter are deceitful; “Peace!” each says to his neighbour,[*a] while in his heart plotting a trap for him.

⁸ And am I not to punish them for such things – it is Yahweh who speaks – or from such a nation exact my vengeance?

⁹ ‘Raise the wail and lamentation for the mountains, the dirge for the desert pastures, for they have been burnt: no one passes there, the sound of flocks is heard no more. Birds of the sky and animals, all have fled, all are gone.

¹⁰ I mean to make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a jackal’s lair, and the towns of Judah an uninhabited wasteland.’

¹¹ Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been charged by Yahweh’s own mouth to tell why the land lies in ruins, burnt like the desert where no one passes?

¹² Yahweh has said, ‘This is because they have forsaken my Law which I put before them and have not listened to my voice or followed it,

¹³ but have followed the dictates of their own stubborn hearts, followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.

¹⁴ And so this is what Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel says: Now I am going to give this people wormwood for their food and poisoned water to drink.

¹⁵ I am going to scatter them throughout nations unknown to their ancestors or to them; and I am going to pursue them with the sword until I have exterminated them.’

¹⁶ You, there! Call the mourning women! Let them come! Send for those who are best at it! Let them come!

¹⁷ Let them lose no time in raising the lament for us! Let our eyes rain tears, our eyelids run with weeping!

¹⁸ Yes, the wail is to be heard from Zion, ‘What ruin is ours, what utter shame! For we must leave the land, abandon our homes!’

¹⁹ And you, women, now hear the word of Yahweh, let your ears take in the word his own mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail, teach one another what dirge to sing,

²⁰ ‘Death has climbed in at our windows, and made its way into our palaces; it has cut down the children in the street, the youths in the square.

²¹ Men’s corpses lie like dung in the open field, like sheaves left by the reaper, with no one to gather them.’

²² Thus says Yahweh, ‘Let the sage boast no more of his wisdom, nor the valiant of his valour, nor the rich man of his riches!

²³ But if anyone wants to boast, let him boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yahweh, I rule with kindness, justice and integrity on earth; yes, these are what please me – it is Yahweh who speaks.

²⁴ ‘See, the days are coming – it is Yahweh who speaks – when I am going to punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh:

²⁵ Egypt, Judah, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all the Crop-Heads[*b] who live in the desert. For all these nations, and the whole House of Israel too, are uncircumcised at heart.’