1Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for my people who have been slaughtered!

2Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for travelers; so that I might leave my people, and go away from them! They are all adulterers, a mob of treacherous liars. 3“They use their tongues like bows to shoot lies; but refuse to take a stand for truth in the land; they just go from evil to evil, nor do they acknowledge Me,” says the LORD. 4“Beware of your neighbors, do not trust any of them; for everyone is a deceiver who will betray and slander. 5They will deceive each other, and not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to lie, and wear themselves out with their evil acts. 6You live amid deceit; they delude themselves into refusing to acknowledge Me,” says the LORD. 7Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Watch, I will refine and test them; for what else shall I do for My people? 8Their tongue shoots poisoned arrows; it speaks deceit. They speak cordially to their neighbor, but in their heart, they plot against him. 9Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Should I not punish them for this?” 10I (Jeremiah) will weep and wail for the mountains and lament for the wilderness pastures, because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through them; nor can you hear the lowing of the cattle; even the birds of the sky and the wild animals have fled. 11I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, and a den for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without any inhabitant.”, says the LORD.

12Who is wise enough to understand this? And who has been taught by the LORD, that he can explain it? Why is the land ruined and become a wasteland, so that no one dares to pass through? 13And the LORD says, “Because they have disobeyed My voice, and forsaken and disregarded My law which I set before them, 14Instead, they have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, as their fathers taught them.” 15Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood (bitter food), with water of gall to drink. 16I will also scatter them among nations that neither they, nor their fathers, have known; and I will cause the sword to pursue them, till I have put an end to them.”

17Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider now, and summon skillful mourning women; 18And let them come quickly, and wail for you, till your eyes overflow with tears, and your eyelids gush with water. 19For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we must abandon the land, because our dwellings are destroyed.’ 20But hear this word of the LORD, O mourning women, and let His word sink in, and teach your daughters wailing, and your neighbors, lamentation. 21For death has climbed up and into your windows, and entered your palaces, to remove the children from the streets outside, and the young men from the public squares.” 22Thus says the LORD, “The carcasses of men shall lie like refuse upon the open field, like a handful of grain left after the harvest; and none shall gather them.”

23Thus says the LORD, “Let the wise man not glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man glory in his might, nor the rich man in his riches, 24But let him that glories, glory in this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD Who exercises loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight”.

25“The days are coming”, says the LORD, “When I will punish all that are circumcised only in the flesh – but not in spirit - 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and they that dwell in the most distant wildernesses; for all these nations are uncircumcised, as are the people of Israel, who are uncircumcised in their heart.”