1Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, and I would weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for wayfaring men, and I would leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

3“And they bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood, and not truth, prevails on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they have not known Me,” declares יהוה.

4“Let everyone beware of his neighbour and not trust any brother. For every brother catches by the heel, and every neighbour walks with slanderers.

5“And everyone deceives his neighbour, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood, and have wearied themselves to crook.

6“You live in the midst of deceit; through deceit they have refused to know Me,” declares יהוה.

7Therefore thus said יהוה of hosts, “See, I shall refine them, and shall try them, for what shall I do because of the daughter of My people?

8“Their tongue is an arrow shot out. It speaks deceit – speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush.

9“Would I not punish them for this?” declares יהוה. “Would I not revenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

10“I shall take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they have been burned up, without any passing over, nor has the voice of cattle been heard. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled, they have gone.

11“And I shall make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, a habitation for jackals; and the cities of Yehuḏah I shall make a waste, without an inhabitant.”

12Who is the wise man, that he understands this? And to whom has the mouth of יהוה spoken, that he declares it? Why has the land perished, has it been burned up like a wilderness, with none passing through?

13And יהוה says, “Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice,a nor walked according to it,

14but they have walked according to the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Ba‛als, which their fathers had taught them.”

15Therefore thus said יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “See, I am making this people eat wormwood, and I shall make them drink poisoned water.

16“And I shall scatter them among the gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I shall send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

17Thus said יהוה of hosts, “Discern! And call for the mourning women, that they come. And send for the wise women, that they come.

18“And let them hasten and take up a wailing for us, and let our eyes run with tears and our eyelids gush with water.

19“For a voice of wailing is heard from Tsiyon, ‘How we are ravaged! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been thrown out of our dwellings.’ ”

20But hear the word of יהוה, O women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth. And teach your daughters wailing, and each one her neighbour a lamentation.

21For death has come through our windows, has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets, and the young men from the squares.

22Speak, “Thus declares יהוה, ‘The corpses of men shall fall as dung on the face of the field, like cuttings after the reaper, with none to gather them.’ ”

23Thus said יהוה, “Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty boast in his might, nor let the rich boast in his riches,

24but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am יהוה, doing kindness, right-ruling, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” declares יהוה.

25“See, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall punish all circumcised with the uncircumcised –

26“Mitsrayim, and Yehuḏah, and Eḏom, and the children of Ammon, and Mo’aḇ, and all those trimmed on the edges, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the gentiles are uncircumcised, and all the house of Yisra’ĕl are uncircumcised in heart!”