A Lament over Zion

1O who wyll geue my head water inough, and a wel of teares for mine eyes, that I may weepe night and day for the slaughter of my people?

2Woulde God that I had a cottage somewhere farre from folke, that I might leaue my people and go from them, for they be all adulterers and a shrinking sort.

3They bend their tongues like vowes to shoote out lyes, they waxe strong vppon earth: As for the trueth, they may nothing away withall in the worlde, for they go from one wickednes to another, and wyll not knowe me, saith the Lorde.

4Yea, one must kepe hym selfe from another, no man may safely trust his owne brother: for one brother vndermindeth another, one neighbour beguileth another.

5Yea, one dissembleth with another, and they deale with no trueth: They haue practised their tongues to lye, and taken great paynes to do mischiefe.

6Thou sittest in the middes of a deceiptfull people, which for very dissembling falshood wyll not knowe me, saith the Lorde.

7Therefore thus saith the Lorde of hoastes: Beholde, I wyll melt them and trye them: for what shoulde I els do to my people?

8Their tongues are like sharpe arrowes to speake deceipt: with their mouth they speake peaceablie to their neighbour, but priuilie they lay wayte for hym.

9Should I not punishe them for these thinges, saith the Lorde? or shoulde I not be auenged of any suche people as this?

10Upon the mountaines wyl I take vp a lamentation and a sorowfull crye, and a mourning vpon the faire places of the wildernesse: Namely, howe they are so brent vp, that no man goeth there any more, yea a man shall not heare one beast crye there: byrdes and cattell are all gone from thence.

11I wyl make Hierusalem also an heape of stones, & a den of venemous wormes: and I wyll make the cities of Iuda so waste, that no man shall dwel therin.

12What man is so wise as to vnderstand this? or to whom hath the Lorde spoken by mouth, that he may shewe this, and say: O thou lande, why perishest thou so? wherfore art thou so brent vp, and like a wildernesse that no man goeth thorowe? 13Yea the Lorde hym selfe tolde the same vnto them that forsoke his lawe, and kept not the thing that he gaue them in commaundement, neither liued thereafter: 14But folowed the wickednesse of their owne heartes, & serued straunge gods as their forefathers taught them. 15Therefore thus saith the Lorde of hoastes, the God of Israel: Beholde, I wyll feede this people with wormewood, and geue them gall to drinke. 16I wyll scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers haue knowen: and I wyll send a sworde among them to persecute them, vntyll I bring them to naught.

17Moreouer, thus saith the Lorde of hoastes: Beware of the vengeaunce that hangeth ouer you, and call for mourning wiues, and sende for wyse women, that they come shortly,

18And sing a mourning song of vs, that the teares may fall out of our eyes, and that our eye liddes may gushe out of water.

19For there is a lamentable noyse heard of Sion: O howe are we so sore destroyed? O howe are we so pitiously confounded? We must forsake our owne naturall countrey, and we are shut out of our owne lodginges.

20Yet heare the worde of the Lorde (O ye women) and let your eares regarde the wordes of his mouth: that ye may learne your daughters to mourne, and that euery one may teache her neighbour to make lamentation

21Namely thus Death is climing vp in at our windowes, he is come into our houses, to destroy the chylde before the doore, and the young man in the streete.

22But tell thou playnely, thus saith the Lord: The dead bodyes of men shall lye vpon the ground as the dunge vpon the fielde, and as the handfull after the mower, and there shalbe no man to take them vp.

23Thus saith the Lorde: Let not the wise man reioyce in his wisdome, nor the strong man in his strength, neither the riche man in his riches: 24But who so wyll reioyce, let hym reioyce in this, that he vnderstandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lorde whiche do mercy, equitie, and righteousnesse vpon the earth: therfore haue I pleasure in suche thinges, saith the Lorde.

25Beholde the time commeth (saith the Lord) that I will visite all them whose foreskinne is vncircumcised, and the circumcised, 26The Egyptians, the Iewes, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the shauen Madianites that dwel in the wildernesse: for all the gentiles are all vncircumcised in the fleshe, but all the house of Israel are vncircumcised in the heart.