Read Amplified Bible, 2015 Jeremiah 9 Bible Online

Jeremiah 9 - Amplified Bible, 2015 bible

Jeremiah 9

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!

²Oh that I had in the wilderness A lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men, That I might leave my people And go away from them! For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the LORD], [They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].

³"They bend their tongue like their bow; [Their] lies and not truth prevail and grow strong in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know and understand and acknowledge Me," says the LORD.

⁴"Let everyone beware of his neighbor And do not trust any brother. For every brother is a supplanter [like Jacob, a deceiver, ready to grab his brother's heel], And every neighbor goes around as a slanderer.

⁵"Everyone deceives and mocks his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They exhaust themselves with sin and cruelty.

⁶"Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; Through deceit they refuse to know (understand) Me," says the LORD.

⁷Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them; For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

⁸"Their tongue is a murderous arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But in his heart he lays traps and waits in ambush for him.

⁹"Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the LORD. "Shall I not avenge Myself On such a nation as this?

¹⁰"I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness, Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them]; Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹"I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt and dwelling place of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."

¹²Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

¹³The LORD said, "Because they have[1] turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it,

¹⁴but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,"

¹⁵therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

¹⁶"I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them."

¹⁷Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider and call for the mourning women to come; Send for the wailing women to come.

¹⁸"Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹"For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed, Because we have left the land, Because they have torn down our dwellings.'"

²⁰Now hear the word of the LORD, O you women, And let your ear hear the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters a song of mourning, And each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.

²¹For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces, Cutting off the children from the streets And the young men from the town squares.

²²Speak, "Thus says the LORD, 'The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field, And like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, And no one will gather them.'"

²³Thus says the LORD, "Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance;

²⁴but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the LORD who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight," says the LORD.

²⁵"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]—

²⁶[2] Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those who live in the desert who clip off the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised (sinful, impure), and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."