09:001

Oh that I were in the wilderness, in a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men

09:002

And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood; and they are grown mighty in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and Me they know not, saith HaShem

09:003

Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother acteth subtly, and every neighbour goeth about with slanders

09:004

And they deceive every one his neighbour, and truth they speak not; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they weary themselves to commit iniquity

09:005

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith HaShem

09:006

Therefore thus saith HaShem of hosts: behold, I will smelt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of My people

09:007

Their tongue is a sharpened arrow, it speaketh deceit; one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him

09:008

Shall I not punish them for these things? saith HaShem; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this

09:009

For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through. And they hear not the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled, and gone

09:010

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

09:011

Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of HaShem hath spoken, that he may declare it? Wherefore is the land perished and laid waste like a wilderness, so that none passeth through

09:012

And HaShem saith: Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not hearkened to My voice, neither walked therein

09:013

But have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them

09:014

Therefore thus saith HaShem of hosts, the G-d of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink

09:015

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them

09:016

Thus saith HaShem of hosts: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may come

09:017

And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters

09:018

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion: 'How are we undone! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

09:019

Yea, hear the word of HaShem, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation

09:020

'For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the street, and the young men from the broad places.-

09:021

Speak: Thus saith HaShem--And the carcasses of men fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, which none gathereth.

09:022

Thus saith HaShem: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches

09:023

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth Me, that I am HaShem who exercise mercy, justice, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith HaShem

09:024

Behold, the days come, saith HaShem, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision

09:025

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair polled, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart