Jeremiah 9:1-18

1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
2 Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.
3 “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph[a] in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.
4 “Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver,[b]and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You[c] live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.
7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.
9 Should I not punish them for this?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
10 I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.
11 “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”
12 Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?
13 The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.
14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”
15 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”
17 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.
18 Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.

Cross References 41

  • 1. S Psalms 119:136
  • 2. Jeremiah 13:17; Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 2:11,18; Lamentations 3:48
  • 3. Isaiah 22:4
  • 4. Psalms 55:7
  • 5. S Numbers 25:1; Jeremiah 5:7-8; Jeremiah 23:10; Hosea 4:2; Hosea 7:4
  • 6. S 1 Kings 19:10; S Isaiah 24:16
  • 7. ver 8; S Exodus 20:16; Psalms 64:3; S Isaiah 44:20; Jeremiah 18:18; Micah 6:12
  • 8. S Isaiah 1:3
  • 9. S 2 Samuel 15:12
  • 10. Micah 7:5-6
  • 11. S Genesis 27:35
  • 12. S Exodus 20:16; S Leviticus 19:16
  • 13. S Leviticus 6:2
  • 14. S Psalms 15:2; S Isaiah 59:15
  • 15. S Psalms 52:3
  • 16. S Jeremiah 5:27
  • 17. S Job 28:1; S Isaiah 1:25
  • 18. S Jeremiah 6:27
  • 19. S ver 3; S Psalms 35:20
  • 20. S Isaiah 3:5
  • 21. S Jeremiah 5:26
  • 22. ver 4
  • 23. S Deuteronomy 32:43; S Isaiah 10:3; Jeremiah 5:9,29
  • 24. Jeremiah 23:10; Joel 1:19
  • 25. S Jeremiah 4:25; Jeremiah 12:4; Hosea 4:3; Joel 1:18
  • 26. Jeremiah 26:18
  • 27. S Job 30:29; S Isaiah 34:13
  • 28. S Jeremiah 1:15
  • 29. S Leviticus 26:31; Isaiah 25:2; S Jeremiah 4:13; Jeremiah 26:9; Jeremiah 33:10; Jeremiah 50:3,13; Jeremiah 51:62; Lamentations 1:4
  • 30. S Psalms 107:43; Hosea 14:9
  • 31. S 2 Chronicles 7:19; S Psalms 89:30-32
  • 32. S Jeremiah 2:8,23; Amos 2:4
  • 33. S Jeremiah 3:17; S Jeremiah 7:24
  • 34. Lamentations 3:15
  • 35. S Jeremiah 8:14
  • 36. S Leviticus 26:33
  • 37. S Deuteronomy 4:32; S Jeremiah 8:19; Deuteronomy 28:64
  • 38. Jeremiah 14:12; Jeremiah 24:10; Ezekiel 5:2
  • 39. Jeremiah 44:27; Ezekiel 5:12
  • 40. 2 Chronicles 35:25; S Ecclesiastes 12:5; Amos 5:16
  • 41. S Psalms 119:136; Lamentations 3:48; Jeremiah 14:17

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Or "lies;" / "they are not valiant for truth"
  • [b]. Or "a deceiving Jacob"
  • [c]. That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular)
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