KJ3 Literal Translation
Jeremiah 9
Jeremiah weeps for the Jews for their many sins, and for their judgment. He exhorts to mourn for their destruction, and to trust not in themselves, but in Jehovah.
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 a lodging place for my journeying in the wilderness, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they all are committing adultery, an assembly of ones acting deceitfully.
3And they bend their tongues, their bow is a lie. And they are not mighty for the truth on the earth, for they go from evil to evil; And they do not know Me, a statement of Jehovah.
4Let every man be on guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For supplanting every brother will supplant, and every neighbor will go about as one slandering.
5And everyone will deceive his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, a statement of Jehovah.
7Therefore, so says Jehovah of Hosts, Behold, I will refine them and test them. For what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
8Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; it speaks deceit. One speaks peace with his neighbor with his mouth, but in his inner part he sets his ambush.
9Shall I not call them to account for these things? a statement of Jehovah. Or shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains and a dirge for the pastures of the wilderness. For they are burned up, without a man passing through. Yea, they do not hear the voice of cattle. From the fowl of the heavens and to the beast, they have fled; they are gone.
11And I will give Jerusalem to be a heap of ruins, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, not [one] living in it.
12Who is the wise man that can understand this? And he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish? It is burned up like the wilderness, so that no one passes through.
13And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it;
14but they have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
15Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make this people eat wormwood, and make them drink waters of poison.
16I will also scatter them among the nations which they have not known, and not their fathers. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.
17So says Jehovah of Hosts, Consider and call for the wailers, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come.
18And let them make haste and take up a lament over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and waters flow from our eyelids.
19For the voice of lament is heard from Zion. How we are devastated! We are greatly ashamed because we have forsaken the land; because they have thrown down our dwellings.
20Yet hear the Word of Jehovah, women. And let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, and teach your daughters a lament, and each woman her neighbor a dirge.
21For death has come into our windows, entering into our fortresses, to cut off the children from the outside, the young men from the broad spaces.
22So speak, a statement of Jehovah, Even the bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the swath after the reaper, and no one shall gather them.
23So says Jehovah, Do not let the wise man glory in his wisdom, and do not let the mighty one glory in his might. Do not let the rich man glory in his riches.
24But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Jehovah, doing kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for I delight in these, a statement of Jehovah.
25Behold, the days come, a statement of Jehovah, that I will call to account all the circumcised with foreskin:
26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those trimmed on the edges of their beards, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel, those uncircumcised of heart.
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