2
Oh that I had in the desert A wayfarers'lodgingplace; That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
3
"They bend their tongue like their bow; Lies and not truthprevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares the LORD.
4
"Let everyone be on guardagainst his neighbor, And do not trustanybrother; Becauseeverybrotherdealscraftily, And everyneighborgoes about as a slanderer.
10
"For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laidwasteso* that noonepassesthrough, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
12
Who is the wiseman that may understandthis? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why* is the landruined, laidwaste like a desert, so* that noonepassesthrough?
16
"I will scatter them among the nations, whomneither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the swordafter them until I have annihilated them."
19
"For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How are we ruined! We are put to greatshame, For we have left the land, Because they have castdown our dwellings.' "
20
Nowhear the word of the LORD, O you women, And let your earreceive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughterswailing, And everyone her neighbor a dirge.
22
Speak, "Thussays the LORD, 'The corpses of men will fall like dung on the openfield, And like the sheafafter* the reaper, But noone will gather them."'
24
but let him who boastsboast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exerciseslovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in thesethings," declares the LORD.
26
Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."