A Lament over Zion

1Oh, 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!

2Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place for travelers,

that I might leave my people and depart from them,

for they are all adulterers,

an assembly of treacherous ones.

3“And they bend their tongues like their bow in deception,

and they are not mighty for the truth on the earth;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know Me!”

A declaration of YHWH.

4“Let each man take heed of his neighbor,

and in any brother not trust.

For every brother does utterly supplant,

and every neighbor walks in slander.

5And each man will deceive his neighbor,

and they will not speak the truth;

they have taught their tongue to speak deception,

and they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6You dwell† in the midst of deceit,

for in deceit they refuse to know Me!”

A declaration of YHWH.

7Therefore thus says YHWH of Hosts:

“Behold, I am refining them, and I will test them!

For how shall I act

before the face† of the daughter of My people?

8Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow,

speaking deceit;

with his mouth he speaks peace to his neighbor,

and in his heart he sets an ambush.

9Shall I not visit them for these things?

A declaration of YHWH.

On a nation such as this

shall not My soul avenge itself?”

10Over the mountains I will take up weeping and wailing,

and over the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation,

because they are burned up without man passing through,

and they do not hear the voice of the cattle;

from the birds of the heavens even to the beast they have fled;

they have gone away.

11“And I will make Jerusalem into heaps,

a dwelling for jackals;†

and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

12Who is the wise man that he may understand this? And to whom has the mouth of YHWH spoken, that he may declare it? Because of what has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, without one passing through?

13And YHWH said: “Because they have forsaken My law that I had set before their face, and they have not listened to My voice and have not walked by it. 14And they have walked after the stubborness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.

15Therefore thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them—this people—with wormwood, and give them to drink water of gall! 16And I will scatter them among the nations that have known, neither they nor their fathers, and I will send out after them a sword, until I have put an end to them!

17Thus says YHWH of Hosts:

“Consider, and call for the wailing women, that they may come;

and send for the skillful women, that they may come!

18And let them hurry

and take up for us a lament,

that our eyes may overflow with tears,

and our eyelids flow with water.

19For a voice of wailing

is heard from Zion:

‘How devastated we are!

We are exceedingly ashamed,

because we have left behind the land,

because they have thrown down our dwellings!’”

20Now hear, O women, the word of YHWH,

and let your⁺ ear receive the word of His mouth!

And teach your⁺ daughters a lamentation,

and each woman her neighbor a dirge!

21For death has come up into our windows;

it enters into our fortresses,

to cut off the child from outside,

the young men from the squares.

22Speak thus: A declaration of YHWH—

“The corpse of a man will fall like dung

upon the face of the field,

and like sheaves behind the reaper,

and there shall be no one gathering!”

23Thus says YHWH:

“Let not the wise one glory in his wisdom,

and let not the mighty one glory in his might,

and let not the rich one glory in his riches;

24that but let the one glorying glory in this,

understanding and knowing Me,

that I am YHWH,†

exercising loving devotion,†

justice, and righteousness in the earth;

for in these things I delight!”

A declaration of YHWH.

25“Behold, the days are coming,” a declaration of YHWH, “When I will visit upon all the circumcised in the foreskin— 26upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all those cutting off a corner, those dwelling in the desert; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Footnotes:

6 That is, Jeremiah dwells (the Hebrew is singular)
7 LXX because of the wickedness of
11 Or serpents or dragons
24 Cited in 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17
24 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.