Jeremiah Chapter 9 (NIV)
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Oh, that my head were a spring of waterand my eyes a fountain of tears!I would weep day and nightfor the slain of my people.
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Oh, that I had in the deserta lodging place for travelers,so that I might leave my peopleand go away from them;for they are all adulterers,a crowd of unfaithful people.
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“They make ready their tonguelike a bow, to shoot lies;it is not by truththat they triumph in the land.They go from one sin to another;they do not acknowledge me,”declares the Lord.
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“Beware of your friends;do not trust your brothers.For every brother is a deceiver,and every friend a slanderer.
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Friend deceives friend,and no one speaks the truth.They have taught their tongues to lie;they weary themselves with sinning.
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You live in the midst of deception;in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”declares the Lord.
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Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:“See, I will refine and test them,for what else can I dobecause of the sin of my people?
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Their tongue is a deadly arrow;it speaks with deceit.With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
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Should I not punish them for this?”declares the Lord.“Should I not avenge myselfon such a nation as this?”
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I will weep and wail for the mountainsand take up a lament concerning the desert pastures.They are desolate and untraveled,and the lowing of cattle is not heard.The birds of the air have fledand the animals are gone.
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“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,a haunt of jackals;and I will lay waste the towns of Judahso no one can live there.”
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What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?
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The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.
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Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”
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Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
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I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them.”
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This is what the Lord Almighty says:“Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;send for the most skillful of them.
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Let them come quicklyand wail over ustill our eyes overflow with tearsand water streams from our eyelids.
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The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:‘How ruined we are!How great is our shame!We must leave our landbecause our houses are in ruins.’”
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Now, O women, hear the word of the Lord;open your ears to the words of his mouth.Teach your daughters how to wail;teach one another a lament.
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Death has climbed in through our windowsand has entered our fortresses;it has cut off the children from the streetsand the young men from the public squares.
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Say, “This is what the Lord declares:“‘The dead bodies of men will lielike refuse on the open field,like cut grain behind the reaper,with no one to gather them.’”
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This is what the Lord says:“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdomor the strong man boast of his strengthor the rich man boast of his riches,
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but let him who boasts boast about this:that he understands and knows me,that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,justice and righteousness on earth,for in these I delight,”declares the Lord.
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“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—
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Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”
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