Jeremiah:9-11

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* Oh that my head were waters , and mine eyes a fountain of tears , that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people ! * 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 . * 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 the LORD . * 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 . * 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 . * Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit ; through deceit they refuse to know Me , saith the LORD . * Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts : Behold , I will smelt them , and try them ; for how else should I do , because of the daughter of My people ? * 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 . * Shall I not punish them for these things ? saith the LORD ; Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? * 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 . * And I will make Jerusalem heaps , a lair of jackals ; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation , without an inhabitant . * Who is the wise man , that he may understand this ? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken , that he may declare it ? Wherefore is the land perished and laid waste like a wilderness , so that none passeth through ? * And the LORD saith : Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them , and have not hearkened to My voice , neither walked therein ; * But have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart , and after the Baalim , which their fathers taught them . * Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : Behold , I will feed them , even this people , with wormwood , and give them water of gall to drink . * 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 . * Thus saith the LORD of hosts : Consider ye , and call for the mourning women , that they may come ; and send for the wise women , that they may come ; * 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 . * 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 .' * Yea , hear the word of the LORD , O ye women , and let your ear receive the word of His mouth , and teach your daughters wailing , and every one her neighbour lamentation : * '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 .-- * Speak : Thus saith the LORD--And the carcasses of men fall as dung upon the open field , and as the handful after the harvestman , which none gathereth .' * Thus saith the LORD : 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 ; * But let him that glorieth glory in this , that he understandeth , and knoweth Me , that I am the LORD who exercise mercy , justice , and righteousness , in the earth ; for in these things I delight , saith the LORD . * Behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision : * 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 . * Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you , O house of Israel ; * thus saith the LORD : Learn not the way of the nations , and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven ; for the nations are dismayed at them . * For the customs of the peoples are vanity ; for it is but a tree which one cutteth out of the forest , the work of the hands of the workman with the axe . * They deck it with silver and with gold , they fasten it with nails and with hammers , that it move not . * They are like a pillar in a garden of cucumbers , and speak not ; they must needs be borne , because they cannot go . Be not afraid of them , for they cannot do evil , neither is it in them to do good . * There is none like unto Thee , O LORD ; Thou art great , and Thy name is great in might . * Who would not fear Thee , O king of the nations ? For it befitteth Thee ; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations , and in all their royalty , there is none like unto Thee . * But they are altogether brutish and foolish : the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock ; * Silver beaten into plates which is brought from Tarshish , and gold from Uphaz , the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith ; blue and purple is their clothing ; they are all the work of skilful men . * But the LORD God is the true God , He is the living God , and the everlasting King ; at His wrath the earth trembleth , and the nations are not able to abide His indignation . * Thus shall ye say unto them : 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth , these shall perish from the earth , and from under the heavens .' * He that hath made the earth by His power , that hath established the world by His wisdom , and hath stretched out the heavens by His understanding ; * At the sound of His giving a multitude of waters in the heavens , when He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth ; when He maketh lightnings with the rain , and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasuries ; * Every man is proved to be brutish , without knowledge , every goldsmith is put to shame by the graven image , his molten image is falsehood , and there is no breath in them . * They are vanity , a work of delusion ; in the time of their visitation they shall perish . * Not like these is the portion of Jacob ; for He is the former of all things , and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance ; the LORD of hosts is His name . * Gather up thy wares from the ground , O thou that abidest in the siege . * For thus saith the LORD : Behold , I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time , and will distress them , that they may feel it . * Woe is me for my hurt ! My wound is grievous ; but I said : 'This is but a sickness , and I must bear it .' * My tent is spoiled , and all my cords are broken ; my children are gone forth of me , and they are not ; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more , and to set up my curtains . * For the shepherds are become brutish , and have not inquired of the LORD ; therefore they have not prospered , and all their flocks are scattered . * Hark ! a report , behold , it cometh , and a great commotion out of the north country , to make the cities of Judah desolate , a dwelling-place of jackals . * O LORD , I know that man 's way is not his own ; it is not in man to direct his steps as he walketh . * O LORD , correct me , but in measure ; not in Thine anger , lest Thou diminish me . * Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not , and upon the families that call not on Thy name ; for they have devoured Jacob , yea , they have devoured him and consumed him , and have laid waste his habitation . * The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD , saying : * 'Hear ye the words of this covenant , and speak unto the men of Judah , and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; * and say thou unto them : Thus saith the LORD , the God of Israel : Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant , * which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt , out of the iron furnace , saying : Hearken to My voice , and do them , according to all which I command you ; so shall ye be My people , and I will be your God ; * that I may establish the oath which I swore unto your fathers , to give them a land flowing with milk and honey , as at this day .' Then answered I , and said : 'Amen , O LORD .' * And the LORD said unto me : 'Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah , and in the streets of Jerusalem , saying : Hear ye the words of this covenant , and do them . * For I earnestly forewarned your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt , even unto this day , forewarning betimes and often , saying : Hearken to My voice . * Yet they hearkened not , nor inclined their ear , but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart ; therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant , which I commanded them to do , but they did them not .' * And the LORD said unto me : 'A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah , and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem . * They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers , who refused to hear My words ; and they are gone after other gods to serve them ; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers . * Therefore thus saith the LORD : Behold , I will bring evil upon them , which they shall not be able to escape ; and though they shall cry unto Me , I will not hearken unto them . * Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer ; but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble . * For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods , O Judah ; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to the shameful thing , even altars to offer unto Baal . * Therefore pray not thou for this people , neither lift up cry nor prayer for them ; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me for their trouble .' * What hath My beloved to do in My house , seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many , and the hallowed flesh is passed from thee ? When thou doest evil , then thou rejoicest . * The LORD called thy name a leafy olive-tree , fair with goodly fruit ; with the noise of a great tumult He hath kindled fire upon it , and the branches of it are broken . * For the LORD of hosts , that planted thee , hath pronounced evil against thee , because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah , which they have wrought for themselves in provoking Me by offering unto Baal . * And the LORD gave me knowledge of it , and I knew it ; then Thou showedst me their doings . * But I was like a docile lamb that is led to the slaughter ; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me : 'Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof , and let us cut him off from the land of the living , that his name may be no more remembered .' * But , O LORD of hosts , that judgest righteously , that triest the reins and the heart , let me see Thy vengeance on them ; for unto Thee have I revealed my cause . * Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth , that seek thy life , saying : 'Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the LORD , that thou die not by our hand '; * therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts : Behold , I will punish them ; the young men shall die by the sword , their sons and their daughters shall die by famine ; * And there shall be no remnant unto them ; for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth , even the year of their visitation . * Right wouldest Thou be , O LORD , were I to contend with Thee , yet will I reason with Thee : Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? Wherefore are all they secure that deal very treacherously ?

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