Jeremiah 9 — Septuagint (LXX)

If only my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears — then I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

If only I had a traveler's shelter in the wilderness — then I would abandon my people and walk away from them! For all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors.

They bend their tongues like a bow for falsehood. It is not for faithfulness that they have grown strong in the land, for they go from one evil to another, and they do not know me, declares the LORD.

Be on guard, each of you, against your neighbor, and do not trust any brother — for every brother is a deceiver like Jacob, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Each person mocks his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth. They have trained their tongues to speak lies; they exhaust themselves doing wrong.

You live in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.

Therefore, this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I am going to refine them and test them — for what else can I do because of my people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit. With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but inwardly he sets an ambush for him.

Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. Should I not avenge myself against a nation such as this?

Over the mountains I will raise weeping and wailing, and over the wilderness pastures a lament, for they are scorched and no one passes through. The sound of livestock is not heard. The birds of the sky and the animals have all fled — they are gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without an inhabitant.

Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he might explain it? Why has the land perished, scorched like a wilderness with no one passing through?

The LORD said: Because they have abandoned my instruction that I set before them — they have not obeyed my voice or walked according to it,

but they have followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them —

Therefore, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to feed this people with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

I 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.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: Take note! Call for the mourning women — let them come. Send for the skilled women — let them come.

Let them hurry and raise a wailing over us, so that our eyes may overflow with tears and our eyelids stream with water.

For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed! For we have left the land; they have torn down our dwellings.'

Hear the word of the LORD, you women! Let your ears receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters to wail and each woman her neighbor to lament.

For death has climbed through our windows and entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets and young men from the public squares.

Speak: This is what the LORD declares — The corpses of the people will fall like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.

This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, let not the strong boast in his strength, let not the wealthy boast in his wealth.

Rather, let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me — that I am the LORD who acts with faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight, declares the LORD.

The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh —

Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all who clip the hair at their temples who live in the wilderness — for all these nations are uncircumcised, and the entire house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.