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9:1  Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
9:2  Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.
9:3  ‘They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,’ declares the Lord.
9:4  ‘Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.
9:5  Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.
9:6  You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,’ declares the Lord.
9:7  Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?
9:8  Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbours, but in their hearts they set traps for them.
9:9  Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?’
9:10  I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untravelled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.
9:11  ‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so that no one can live there.’
9:12  Who 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?
9:13  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.
9:14  Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.’
9:15  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.
9:16  I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.’
9:17  This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skilful of them.
9:18  Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.
9:19  The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.”’
9:20  Now, you 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.
9:21  Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has removed the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.
9:22  Say, ‘This is what the Lord declares: ‘“Dead bodies will lie like dung on the open field, like cut corn behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.”’
9:23  This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches,
9:24  but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.
9:25  ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh –
9:26  Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’