Jeremiah 9
9
1 # 9:1 Verse 9:1 is numbered 8:23 in Hebrew text. 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.
2 # 9:2 Verses 9:2-26 are numbered 9:1-25 in Hebrew text. Oh, 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.
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.
4“Beware of your neighbor!
Don’t even trust your brother!
For brother takes advantage of brother,
and friend slanders friend.
5They 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.
6They pile lie upon lie
and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,”
says the Lord.
7Therefore, 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?#9:7 Hebrew with the daughter of my people? Greek version reads with the evil daughter of my people?
8For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows.
They speak friendly words to their neighbors
while scheming in their heart to kill them.
9Should I not punish them for this?” says the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?”
10I 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.
11“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.”
12Who 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?
13The Lord replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said. 14Instead, they have stubbornly followed their own desires and worshiped the images of Baal, as their ancestors taught them. 15So 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. 16I 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.”
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.
18Quick! Begin your weeping!
Let the tears flow from your eyes.
19Hear the people of Jerusalem#9:19 Hebrew Zion. crying in despair,
‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated!
We must leave our land,
because our homes have been torn down.’”
20Listen, 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.
21For 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.
22This 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.”
23This 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.
24But 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!
25“A time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit— 26the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in the desert in remote places,#9:26 Or in the desert and clip the corners of their hair. and yes, even the people of Judah. And like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.”
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Jeremiah 9: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Yirmeyah 9
9
1Oh that my rosh (head) were mayim, and mine eyes a makor dimah (a fountain of tears), that I might weep yomam valailah for the slain of the Bat Ami!
2 Oh that I had in the midbar a malon orkhim (travelersʼ lodge); that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all no'afim (adulterers), an atzeret bogedim (band of treacherous traitors).
3 And they bend to the ready their leshon like their keshet (bow) for sheker; but not for emunah have they prevailed in ha'aretz; for they proceed from ra'ah to ra'ah, and they know not Me, saith Hashem.
4 Be ye shomer every one over his re'a (neighbor, friend) and trust ye not in kol ach (any brother); for kol ach will ya'akov (utterly supplant, deceive), and every re'a (neighbor) will holech rakhil (walk as the slanderer, gossiper).
5 And they will deceive every one his re'a, and will not speak emes; they have taught their leshon to speak sheker, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Thine habitation is in the midst of mirmah; through mirmah they refuse to know Me, saith Hashem.
7 Therefore thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, Hineni, I will refine them, and test them; for what but this shall I do for the Bat Ami?
8 Their leshon is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh mirmah; one speaketh shalom to his re'a with his mouth, but inwardly he lieth in ambush.
9 Shall I not visit them [in punishment] for these things? saith Hashem. Shall not My Nefesh be avenged on such a Goy (nation) as this?
10 I take up a weeping and nehi (lamentation) for the harim, and for the pastures of the midbar a kinah (lamentation), because they are scorched, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the mikneh (cattle); both the oph haShomayim and the behemah are fled; they are gone.
11 And I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, and a ma'on of jackals; and I will make the towns of Yehudah desolate, without an inhabitant.
12 Who is the ish hechacham (wise man), that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Hashem hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what HaAretz perisheth and is scorched like a midbar, that none passeth through?
13 And Hashem saith, Because they have forsaken My torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein;
14 But have walked after the sherirut (stubbornness) of their own lev, and after Ba'alim, which their avot taught them;
15 Therefore thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, the Elohei Yisroel; Hineni, I will make this people eat la'anah (wormwood), and give them poisoned water to drink.
16 I will scatter them also among the Goyim, whom neither they nor their avot have known; and I will send a cherev after them, till I have consumed them.
17 Thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, Consider ye, and call for the wailing women, that they may come; and send for the chachamot (wise women), that they may come;
18 And let them make haste, and take up a nehi (lamentation) for us, that our eyes may run down with dimah (tears), and our eyelids gush out with mayim.
19 For a sound of nehi (lamentation) is heard from Tziyon, How are we plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken eretz, because mishkenoteinu have expelled us.
20 Yet hear the Devar Hashem, O ye nashim, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your banot nehi (lamentation), and everyone her re'a (neighbor) kinah (dirge).
21 For mavet (death) is come up into our windows, and is entered into our fortresses, to cut off the olal (children) from the street, and the bochurim from the rechovot.
22 Speak, Thus saith Hashem, Even the nevilah of adam shall fall like domen (dung) upon the sadeh, and the omer (sheaf) after the kotzer (harvester), and none shall gather them.
23 Thus saith Hashem, Let not the chacham (wise man) glory in his chochmah, neither let the gibbor (mighty man) glory in his gevurah (might), let not the oisher (rich man) glory in his riches;
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am Hashem Who exercises chesed, mishpat, and tzedakah, on ha'aretz; for in these things I delight, saith Hashem.
25 Hinei, the yamim come, saith Hashem, that I will punish kol mul b'arlah (all circumcized in arlah [only]);
26 Mitzrayim, and Yehudah, and Edom, and the Bnei Ammon, and Moav, and kol ketzutzei pe'ah (all in the farthest corners), that dwell in the midbar; for all these Goyim are uncircumcised, and kol Bais Yisroel are arlei lev (uncircumcised in heart).#9:26 i.e., in need of regeneration, see Jn 3:3; Dt 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4; 31:31-34; Ro 9:6; 2:28-29; Isa 52:1; Ezek 36:25-27; 44:7,9; Co 2:11-12; 2C 5:17; Ti 3:4-7
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