1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2Oh 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. 3And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says Yehovah. 4Take heed every one of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. 5And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yehovah. 7Therefore thus says Yehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? 8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait for him. 9Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled, they are gone. 11And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. 12Who is the wise man, who may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of Yehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13And Yehovah says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked in it, 14but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; 15therefore thus says Yehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16I 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. 17Thus says Yehovah of hosts, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come: 18and 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. 19For 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. 20Yet hear the word of Yehovah, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. 21For death has come up into our windows, it has entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets. 22Speak, Thus says Yehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and no one shall gather them. 23Thus says Yehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; 24but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yehovah who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yehovah. 25Behold, the days are coming, says Yehovah, when I will punish all those who are circumcised in their uncircumcision: 26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all who 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.