Jeremiah 9 O that my head were water! and mine eyes a fountain of tears! That I might weep day and night for this people of mine; for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Thomson⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ O that my head were water! and mine eyes a fountain of tears! That I might weep day and night for this people of mine; for the slain of the daughter of my people! ² O that I had a remote lodging in the wilderness, that I might leave my people and go away from them! [J] Because they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, ³ and have bent their tongue like a bow; lying and infidelity prevailed in the land; because they have proceeded from evils to evils, and have not known me, saith the Lord; ⁴ be upon your guard every man against his neighbour, and in your own brothers place no confidence; for every brother will supplant, and every friend walk deceitfully; ⁵ every one will treat his friend with contempt. They cannot speak truth; their tongue hath learned to speak lies. They have done injustice, and have not stopped to rectify it. ⁶ There is usury upon usury, deceit upon deceit; they refused to know me, saith the Lord: ⁷ therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold I will melt them and try them. What else can I do on account of the wickedness of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a wounding dart: the words of their mouth are deceitful. To his neighbour one speaketh peace; when inwardly he harboureth enmity. ⁹ Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord; and on such a nation shall not my soul be avenged? ¹⁰ Take ye up a lamentation for the mountains, and for the paths of the wilderness, a song of woe; for such is the desolation that there are no men, nor is there a sound of existence heard from birds of the air, nor from cattle. They were confounded. They are fled. ¹¹ I will indeed deliver up Jerusalem to captivity and make it a den for jackals; and the cities of Juda an uninhabitable desolation. ¹² [p] Whoever is a wise man, let him understand this; and let him, who hath a word from the mouth of the Lord, declare to you, for what cause the land is destroyed; burned up like a desert, so as not to be travelled. ¹³ Again the Lord said to me, [J] Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not hearkened to my voice; ¹⁴ but have gone after the pleasures of their own wicked heart, and after the idols which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, behold I will feed them with Wormwood, and give them the water of gall to drink. ¹⁶ And I will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers have known, and send a sword after them till they are consumed by it. ¹⁷ Thus saith the Lord, Call the mourning women and let them come; send for the well instructed and let them utter a plaintive sound ¹⁸ and take up a mournful lamentation for you: and let your eyes collect tears, and your eye lids gush out water. ¹⁹ [p] Because a sound of wailing is heard in Sion; "Oh how wretched we are! how greatly confounded because we have left our land, and abandoned our habitations:" ²⁰ hear I beseech you, women! a word of God: and let your ears receive the words of his mouth: and teach your daughters a song of Woe; and every woman, her neighbour the mournful dirge. ²¹ For death is gone up through your windows: it is come into your land, to destroy infants at home and young men in the streets: ²² and the carcasses of the men shall be for a spectacle on the open field throughout your land, like grass after a mower and there will be none to gather. ²³ [J] Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom: nor the mighty man boast of his strength; neither let the rich man boast of his riches: ²⁴ but let him who boasteth, boast of this only, that he understandeth and knoweth, that I am the Lord, who exercise mercy and judgment and justice on the earth: that in these things is my delight, saith the Lord. ²⁵ Behold days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will visit upon all the uncircumcised, their uncircumcisions ²⁶ Upon Egypt, and upon Idumea, and upon Edom, and upon the Ammonites, and upon the Moabites, and upon all that have their foreheads shaven; namely them who dwell in the wilderness. Because all the nations are uncircumcised in flesh, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their hearts;