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          DASV: Jeremiah 9    

1 "O that my head were a spring of water,
     and my eyes a fountain of tears,
            that I might weep day and night
     for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 O that I had a lodge for travelers in the wilderness,
           that I might leave my people and go away from them!
      For they are all adulterers,
           a gang of traitors.
3 They bend their tongue like a bow
            ready to shoot out lies.
      They have grown strong in the land,
            but not for the cause of truth;
            for they proceed from one evil to the next,
            and they do not know me," says the LORD.

4 "Let each one beware of his neighbor,
            and do not trust any brother.
      For every brother will supplant by deception,
            and every neighbor will go around as a slanderer.
5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor,
           and no one tells the truth.
      They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
           they wear themselves out trying to commit sin.
6 Your home is in the midst of one lie on top of another.
     They refuse to know me," says the LORD.

7 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says,
      "I will refine and test them,
            for what else can I do with my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
           it speaks deceit.
      Each one speaks friendly words to his neighbor with his mouth,
           but in his heart he sets up an ambush for him.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the LORD.
     "Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?"

10 For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,
     and for the pastures of the wilderness I will lament,
      because they are so scorched,
           no one passes through them.
      They cannot hear the sound of the cattle there.
     Both the birds of the air and the beasts
            have fled and gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem into a heap of rubble,
     a haunt of jackals;
      I will make the cities of Judah an uninhabitable wasteland.

12 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the
mouth of the LORD spoken so that he may explain it? Why is
the land devastated and scorched like a wilderness so that
no one passes through it?
13 Then the LORD said, "This happened because they have
forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed
my voice, or walked according to it,
14 but have followed after their own stubborn hearts. They
pursued the Baals, just as their parents taught them."
15 Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel, says, "Look, I will feed this people with bitter
food and give them poisoned water to drink.
16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither
they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword
after them until I have destroyed them."

17 This is what the LORD of hosts says,
     "Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
            send for those most skilled at it.
18 Let them hurry and wail for us,
     that our eyes may stream with tears
            and our eyelids overflow with water.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion,
           'O how we are ruined!
      We are absolutely shamed;
            we have had to forsake the land,
           because they have torn down our homes.'"

20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O women,
     and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
      teach your daughters to wail,
      and everyone her neighbor a lament.
21 For death has climbed in through our windows;
     it has entered into our palaces,
      to cut off the children in the streets
     and the young from the town squares.
22 Say, This is what the LORD says,
     "The corpses will fall like manure spread on the open field,
     and like grain fallen behind the reaper with no one to pick it up."

23 This is what the LORD says,
     "Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom,
            or the mighty boast in their might;
     do not let the rich boast in their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast in this;
     that they understand and know me,
     that I am the LORD who acts with
            loyal love, justice, and righteousness,
            in the earth,
     for these are the things I delight in," says the LORD.

25 "The days are coming," says the LORD, "that I will
punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh,
26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, and all who live
in the desert in remote places. For all these nations
are uncircumcised, along with all the house of Israel
who is also uncircumcised in heart."

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