A Lament over Zion

1Oh, that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears!

I would weep day and night

over the slain daughter of my people.

2If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness,

I would abandon my people and depart from them,

for they are all adulterers,

a crowd of faithless people.

3“They bend their tongues like bows;

lies prevail over truth in the land.

For they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not take Me into account,”

declares the LORD.

4“Let everyone guard against his neighbor;

do not trust any brother,

for every brother deals craftily,

and every friend spreads slander.

5Each one betrays his friend;

no one tells the truth.

They have taught their tongues to lie;

they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

6You dwella in the midst of deception;

in their deceit they refuse to know Me,”

declares the LORD.

7Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Behold, I will refine them and test them,

for what else can I do

because ofb the daughter of My people?

8Their tongues are deadly arrows;

they speak deception.

With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

9Should I not punish them for these things?

declares the LORD.

Should I not avenge Myself

on such a nation as this?”

10I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

a dirge over the wilderness pasture,

for they have been scorched so no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard.

Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled;

they have gone away.

11“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,

a haunt for jackals;c

and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

12Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?

13And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice. 14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”

15Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

17This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Take note, and summon the wailing women;

send for the most skillful among them.

18Let them come quickly

and take up a lament over us,

that our eyes may overflow with tears,

and our eyelids may gush with water.

19For the sound of wailing

is heard from Zion:

‘How devastated we are!

How great is our shame!

For we have abandoned the land

because our dwellings have been torn down.’ ”

20Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD.

Open your ears to the word of His mouth.

Teach your daughters to wail,

and one another to lament.

21For death has climbed in through our windows;

it has entered our fortresses

to cut off the children from the streets,

the young men from the town squares.

22Declare that this is what the LORD says:

“The corpses of men will fall like dung

upon the open field,

like newly cut grain behind the reaper,

with no one to gather it.”

23This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,

nor the strong man in his strength,

nor the wealthy man in his riches.

24But let him who boasts boast in this,

that he understands and knows Me,

that I am the LORD,d

who exercises loving devotion,e

justice and righteousness on the earth—

for I delight in these things,”

declares the LORD.

25“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised: 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”