The Lantern

Jeremiah9

A Lament over Zion

Oh that my head were waters, and my eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of travelers, that I might leave my people and go from them! For all of them are adulterers, an assembly of the treacherous.

And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood; and not for faithfulness are they strong in the land. For from evil to evil they go out, and me they do not know — the utterance of the LORD.

Guard yourselves, each from his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother; for every brother utterly supplants, and every neighbor walks in slander.

And each mocks his neighbor, and they do not speak truth. They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood; they weary themselves with twisting.

Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me — the utterance of the LORD.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: See, I am refining them and testing them; for how else should I act, before the daughter of my people?

A slaughtering arrow is their tongue; it speaks deceit. With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, and within him he sets his ambush.

Shall I not attend to them for these? — the utterance of the LORD. On a nation such as this shall my soul not take vengeance?

For the mountains I will lift weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lament, for they are burned with no man passing through, and they do not hear the sound of livestock. From the birds of the heavens to the beast, they have fled, they are gone.

And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a lair of jackals, and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitant.

Who is the wise man that may understand this? And to whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? For what has the land perished, burned like the wilderness with none passing through?

And the LORD said: Because they forsook my instruction that I set before them, and did not obey my voice and did not walk in it,

but walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them —

therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I am feeding them, this people, wormwood, and giving them poisoned water to drink.

And I will scatter them among the nations which neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send after them the sword until I have finished them.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women, and let them come; and to the skilled women send, and let them come.

And let them hurry and lift a wailing over us, and let our eyes run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water.

For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are devastated! We are utterly ashamed, for we have left the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.

Yet hear, women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear take the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and each her neighbor a lament.

For death has come up into our windows, has entered our citadels, to cut off the child from the street, the young men from the squares.

Speak: Thus is the utterance of the LORD: And the carcass of man will fall like dung on the face of the field, and like a sheaf behind the reaper, with none to gather.

Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty boast in his might; let not the rich boast in his riches.

But in this let the one who boasts boast: understanding and knowing me, that I am the LORD, doing loyal love, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for in these I delight — the utterance of the LORD.

See, days are coming — the utterance of the LORD — when I will attend to all the circumcised in foreskin:

to Egypt and to Judah and to Edom and to the sons of Ammon and to Moab and to all who clip the corners of their hair, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.