1Oh, if only my head were like a fountain of water and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of my people!
2Oh, if only I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness, so that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a gathering of deceitful men.
3They bend their tongue like a bow to shoot lies; they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth. For they go from one evil to another, and they don’t know me, says Yahweh.
4Everyone beware of your neighbor, and don’t trust any brother; for every brother will surely deceive, and every neighbor will spread slanders.
5Everyone will deceive their neighbors and will not speak the truth. They have trained their tongues to tell lies. They exhaust themselves committing wrongdoing.
6Your home is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh.
7Therefore, Yahweh of Armies says, “Look, I will melt them and test them; for how else should I deal with my people?
8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit. One speaks peacefully to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he plans to ambush him.
9Should I not punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t I take revenge on a nation like this?”
10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and mourn for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; nor can people hear the sound of livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.
11“I will turn Jerusalem into piles of rubble, a place where jackals live. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, with no one living in them.”
12Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has Yahweh spoken, so that he can explain it? Why is the land destroyed and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one travels through it?
13Yahweh says, “This is because they abandoned my law, which I put before them. They did not obey me or live by my law.”
14“Instead, they followed their own stubborn desires and worshiped the Baals, just as their ancestors taught them.”
15Therefore, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Listen! I will feed these people bitterness and make them drink poisoned water.
16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors knew. I will send war after them until I have completely destroyed them.”
17Yahweh of Armies says, “Think about this, and call for the women who mourn to come. Send for the skilled women who lament, and have them come.
18Let them hurry and start wailing for us, so our eyes can pour out tears and our eyelids stream with water.
19Because a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are ruined! We are terribly confused, because we have left the land and they have knocked down our homes.’”
20Yet, women, hear Yahweh’s word; listen closely to what he says. Teach your daughters how to wail, and each woman teach her neighbor how to lament.
21For death has climbed into our windows and entered our palaces, cutting off children from the streets outside and young men from the city squares.
22Speak, “Yahweh says, ‘The dead bodies of people will fall like dung on the open field, like handfuls left behind by the harvester, and no one will gather them.’”
23Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise person brag about their wisdom. Don’t let the strong person brag about their strength. Don’t let the rich person brag about their wealth.
24But if someone wants to brag, they should brag about this: that they understand and know me, that I am Yahweh, who shows kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.
25“Listen! The days are coming,” says Yahweh, “when I will punish all those who are only circumcised physically:
26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all those with shaved temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”