9:1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
9:2 Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.
9:3 They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies it is not by truth that they triumph [Or lies they are not valiant for truth] in the land. They go from one sin to another they do not acknowledge me, declares the LORD.
9:4 Beware of your friends do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, [Or a deceiving Jacob] and every friend a slanderer.
9:5 Friend deceives friend, and no-one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie they weary themselves with sinning.
9:6 You [That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular)] live in the midst of deception in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me, declares the LORD.
9:7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?
9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbour, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
9:9 Should I not punish them for this? declares the LORD. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?
9:10 I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untravelled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone.
9:11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so that no-one can live there.
9:12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no-one can cross?
9:13 The LORD said, It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them they have not obeyed me or followed my law.
9:14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them.
9:15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them.
9:17 This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come send for the most skilful of them.
9:18 Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.
9:19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.’
9:20 Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail teach one another a lament.
9:21 Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.
9:22 Say, This is what the LORD declares: ‘The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut corn behind the reaper, with no-one to gather them.’
9:23 This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches,
9:24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, declares the LORD.
9:25 The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh
9:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. [Or desert and who clip the hair by their foreheads] For all these nations are really 1672 uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.