Jeremiah’s Continual Tears

¹ Oh that my head were a spring of waters
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!

² Oh that I had in the wilderness,
a lodging place for travelers,
that I might leave my people,
and get away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.
³ They bend their tongue,
like a bow, to lie.
They have grown strong in the land,
but not for truth,
for they go from evil to evil,
and they do not know me.

⁴ Everyone beware of his neighbor
and do not trust in any brother,
for every brother will utterly uproot the other,
and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.
⁵ Friends deceive each other,
and will not speak the truth.
They have trained their tongue to utter lies.
They wear themselves out committing sin.
⁶ Your habitation is in the midst of deceit.
Through their deceit, they refuse to know me,”

 ⁷ Therefore, the Lord of Hosts says,

“I will refine them and test them,
for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow,
for it speaks deceit.
One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
⁹ Should I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Should I not be avenged on a nation such as this?

¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains,
and lament for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are burned up, so that no one passes through,
Men cannot hear the sound of the livestock.
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled.
They are gone.

¹¹ I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a dwelling place of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.”

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through it?

¹³ The Lord answers, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”

¹⁵ Therefore the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, “I will feed these people with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. ¹⁶ And I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”

Weeping in Jerusalem

¹⁷ The Lord of Hosts says,

“Consider this and call for the wailing women,
that they may come.
Send for the skilled mourners.
¹⁸ Let them come quickly
and mourn over us,
that our eyes may run with tears
and our eyelids gush with water.
¹⁹ For the sound of wailing is heard out of Zion,
‘How we are ruined!
We are greatly confounded
because we have forsaken the land,
because they have torn down our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰ Yet hear the word of the Lord, you women.
Let your ear receive the word of his mouth.
Teach your daughters to wail.
Everyone teach her neighbor a lament.
²¹ For death has come up into our windows.
It has entered into our palaces
to take the children from the streets,
and the young men from the public square.

²² Speak this, “The Lord says,

“ ‘The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field,
and like cut grain left from the harvester.
No one will gather them.’ ”

²³ The Lord says, “Do not let the wise man glory in his wisdom.
Do not let the mighty man glory in his might.
Do not let the rich man glory in his riches.
²⁴ But let him who glories, glory in this:
that he has understanding and knows me,
that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things,” says the Lord.

²⁵ “The days are coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

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