9If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered.H5414H7218H4325H5869H4726H1832H1058H3119H3915H2491H1323H59712Oh, that I could go away and forget my people and live in a travelers’ shack in the desert. For they are all adulterers—a pack of treacherous liars.H5414H4057H4411H732H5800H5971H3212H5003H6116H898
Judgment for Disobedience
3“My people bend their tongues like bows to shoot out lies. They refuse to stand up for the truth. They only go from bad to worse. They do not know me,” says the Lord.H1869H3956H7198H8267H1396H530H776H3318H7451H7451H3045H5002H30684“Beware of your neighbor! Don’t even trust your brother! For brother takes advantage of brother, and friend slanders friend.H8104H376H7453H982H251H251H6117H6117H7453H1980H74005They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning.H2048H376H7453H1696H571H3925H3956H1696H8267H3811H57536They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,” says the Lord.H3427H8432H4820H4820H3985H3045H5002H30687Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “See, I will melt them down in a crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with my people?H559H3068H6635H6884H974H6213H6440H1323H59718For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows. They speak friendly words to their neighbors while scheming in their heart to kill them.H3956H2671H7819H1696H4820H1696H7965H7453H6310H7130H7760H6969Should I not punish them for this?” says the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?”H6485H5002H3068H5315H5358H147110I will weep for the mountains and wail for the wilderness pastures. For they are desolate and empty of life; the lowing of cattle is heard no more; the birds and wild animals have all fled.H2022H5375H1065H5092H4999H4057H7015H3341H376H5674H8085H6963H4735H5775H8064H929H5074H198011“I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the Lord. “It will be a place haunted by jackals. The towns of Judah will be ghost towns, with no one living in them.”H5414H3389H1530H4583H8577H5414H5892H3063H8077H342712Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it?H2450H376H995H6310H3068H1696H5046H776H6H3341H4057H567413The Lord replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said.H3068H559H5800H8451H5414H6440H8085H6963H198014Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them.H3212H310H8307H3820H310H1168H1H392515So now, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.H559H3068H6635H430H3478H398H5971H3939H4325H7219H824816I will scatter them around the world, in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and even there I will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely.”H6327H1471H1H3045H7971H2719H310H3615
Weeping in Jerusalem
17This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Consider all this, and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals.H559H3068H6635H995H7121H6969H935H7971H2450H93518Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes.H4116H5375H5092H5869H3381H1832H6079H5140H432519Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair, ‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated! We must leave our land, because our homes have been torn down.’”H6963H5092H8085H6726H7703H3966H954H5800H776H4908H799320Listen, you women, to the words of the Lord; open your ears to what he has to say. Teach your daughters to wail; teach one another how to lament.H8085H1697H3068H802H241H3947H1697H6310H3925H1323H5092H802H7468H701521For death has crept in through our windows and has entered our mansions. It has killed off the flower of our youth: Children no longer play in the streets, and young men no longer gather in the squares.H4194H5927H2474H935H759H3772H5768H2351H970H733922This is what the Lord says: “Bodies will be scattered across the fields like clumps of manure, like bundles of grain after the harvest. No one will be left to bury them.”H1696H5002H3068H5038H120H5307H1828H6440H7704H5995H310H7114H62223This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches.H559H3068H2450H1984H2451H1368H1984H1369H6223H1984H623924But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!H1984H1984H7919H3045H3068H6213H2617H4941H6666H776H2654H5002H306825“A time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit—H3117H935H5002H3068H6485H4135H619026the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in the desert in remote places, and yes, even the people of Judah. And like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.”H4714H3063H123H1121H5983H4124H7112H6285H3427H4057H1471H6189H1004H3478H6189H3820
Des Moines, IA
If only my head were a pool of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night for all my people who have been slaughtered.H5414
