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9:1  Oh 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!
9:2  Oh that I had in the wilderness A lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men, That I might leave my people And go away from them! For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the Lord], [They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].
9:3  “They bend their tongue like their bow; [Their] lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me,” says the Lord.
9:4  “Let everyone beware of his neighbor And do not trust any brother. For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother’s heel], And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.
9:5  “Everyone deceives and mocks his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They exhaust themselves with sin and cruelty.
9:6  “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; Through deceit they refuse to know (understand) Me,” says the Lord.
9:7  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them; For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?
9:8  “Their tongue is a murderous arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But in his heart he lays traps and waits in ambush for him.
9:9  “Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “Shall I not avenge Myself On such a nation as this?
9:10  “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness, Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them]; Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
9:11  “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt and dwelling place of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
9:12  Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
9:13  The Lord said, “Because they have turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it,
9:14  but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”
9:15  therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.
9:16  I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”
9:17  Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider and call for the mourning women to come; Send for the wailing women to come.
9:18  “Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.
9:19  “For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion: ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed, Because we have left the land, Because they have torn down our dwellings.’”
9:20  Now hear the word of the Lord, O you women, And let your ear hear the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters a song of mourning, And each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.
9:21  For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces, Cutting off the children from the streets And the young men from the town squares.
9:22  Speak, “Thus says the Lord, ‘The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field, And like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, And no one will gather them.’”
9:23  Thus says the Lord, “Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance;
9:24  but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the Lord who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the Lord.
9:25  “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]—
9:26  Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those who live in the desert who clip off the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised (sinful, impure), and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”