Chapter 9

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

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  Oh that I had in the wilderness 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.  

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  They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.  

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  Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.  

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  They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.  

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  Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh.  

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  Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?  

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  Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.  

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  Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?  

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  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 passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.  

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  I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.  

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  Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?  

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  Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,  

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  but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;  

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  therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.  

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  I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.  

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  Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:  

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  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.  

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  For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.  

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  Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.  

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  For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men from the streets.  

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  Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather [them].  

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  Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches;  

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  but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.  

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  Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision:  

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  Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.  

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