Jeremiah 9
9
1I wish that my eyes
were fountains of tears,
so I could cry day and night
for my people
who were killed.
2I wish I could go into the desert
and find a hiding place
from all who are treacherous
and unfaithful to God.
The Lord Answers Jeremiah
3The Lord replied:
Lies come from the mouths
of my people,
like arrows from a bow.
With each dishonest deed
their power increases,
and not one of them will admit
that I am God.
4Jeremiah, all your friends
and relatives
tell lies about you,
so don't trust them.
5They wear themselves out,
always looking for a new way
to cheat their friends.
6Everyone takes advantage
of everyone else,
and no one will admit
that I am God.
7And so I will purify
the hearts of my people
just as gold is purified
in a furnace.
I have no other choice.
8They say they want peace,
but this lie is deadly,
like an arrow that strikes
when you least expect it.
9Give me one good reason
not to punish them
as they deserve.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have spoken.
Jeremiah Weeps for His People
10I weep for the pastureland
in the hill country.
It's so barren and scorched
that no one travels there.
No cattle can be found there,
and birds and wild animals
have all disappeared.
11I heard the Lord reply,
“When I am finished,
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah
will be piles of ruins
where only jackals#9.11 jackals: Desert animals related to wolves, but smaller. live.”
Why the Land Was Destroyed
12I said to the Lord, “None of us can understand why the land has become like an uncrossable desert. Won't you explain why?”
13The Lord said:
I destroyed the land because the people disobeyed me and rejected my laws and teachings. 14They were stubborn and worshiped Baal,#9.14 Baal: See the note at 2.23. just as their ancestors did. 15So I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, promise them poison to eat and drink.#9.15 poison to eat and drink: Or “bitter disappointment to eat, and tears to drink.” 16I'll scatter them in foreign countries that they and their ancestors have never even heard of. Finally, I will send enemy soldiers to kill every last one of them.
The Women Who Are Paid To Weep
17The Lord All-Powerful said,
“Make arrangements now
for the women who are paid
to weep at funerals,#9.17 women … weep at funerals: Or “the women who weep for Baal”; the god Baal was believed to have died and come back to life, and some women would go to places of worship and weep over the death of Baal.
especially the women
who can cry the loudest.”
18The people answered,
“Let them come quickly
and cry for us,
until our own eyes
are flooded with tears.
19Now those of us on Zion cry,
‘We are ruined!
We can't stand the shame.
Our homes have been destroyed,
and we must leave our land.’
20“We ask you women
to pay attention
to what the Lord says.
We will teach you a funeral song
that you can teach
your daughters and friends:
21‘We were in our fortress,
but death sneaked in
through our windows.
It even struck down
children at play
and our strongest young men.’
22“The Lord has told us
the ground will be covered
with dead bodies,
like ungathered stalks of grain
or manure in a field.”
What the Lord Likes Best
23The Lord says:
Don't brag about your wisdom
or strength or wealth.
24 #
1 Co 1.31; 2 Co 10.17. If you feel you must brag,
then have enough sense
to brag about worshiping me,
the Lord.
What I like best
is showing kindness,
justice, and mercy
to everyone on earth.
25-26Someday I will punish the nations of Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, and the tribes of the desert.#9.25,26 the tribes of the desert: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The men of these nations are circumcised, but they don't worship me. And it's the same with you people of Judah. Your bodies are circumcised, but your hearts are unchanged.
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Jeremiah 9: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremias (Jeremiah) 9
9
1Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people?
2Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people and depart from them, because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors?
3And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth: for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
4Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
5And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they have laboured to commit iniquity.
6Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: Through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.
7Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt and try them. For what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is a piercing arrow: it hath spoken deceit. With his mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait for him.
9Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? Or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
10For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them. And they have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts, they are gone away and departed.
11And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.
12Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why the land hath perished and is burnt up like a wilderness which none passeth through?
13And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.
14But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
15Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink.
16And I will scatter them among the nations which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they be consumed.
17Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste:
18Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes shed tears and our eyelids run down with waters.
19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and greatly confounded? Because we have left the land, because our dwellings are cast down.
20Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord, and let your ears receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighboor mourning.
21For death is come up through our windows: it is entered into our houses, to destroy the children from without, the young men from the streets.
22Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the mower, and there is none to gather it.
23Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy and judgment and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
25Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
26Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.