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9O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! ²O that I had in the desert a traveler’s lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a band of traitors. ³They bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord. ⁴Beware of your neighbors, and put no trust in any of your kin; for all your kin are supplanters, and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer. ⁵They all deceive their neighbors, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent. ⁶Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit! They refuse to know me, says the Lord. ⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: I will now refine and test them, for what else can I do with my sinful people? ⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit through the mouth. They all speak friendly words to their neighbors, but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush. ⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this? ¹⁰Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the animals have fled and are gone. ¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹²Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the Lord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, ¹⁴but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their ancestors taught them. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them. ¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come; ¹⁸let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water. ¹⁹For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: “How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.” ²⁰Hear, O women, the word of the Lord, and let your ears receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a dirge, and each to her neighbor a lament. ²¹“Death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.” ²²Speak! Thus says the Lord: “Human corpses shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves behind the reaper, and no one shall gather them.”

²³Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; ²⁴but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord. ²⁵The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: ²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

10Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations, or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³For the customs of the peoples are false: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan; ⁴people deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. ⁵Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good. ⁶There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. ⁷Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For that is your due; among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you. ⁸They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction given by idols is no better than wood! ⁹Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are the work of the artisan and of the hands of the goldsmith; their clothing is blue and purple; they are all the product of skilled workers. ¹⁰But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. ¹¹Thus shall you say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. ¹²It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. ¹³When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and he brings out the wind from his storehouses. ¹⁴Everyone is stupid and without knowledge; goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols; for their images are false, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their punishment they shall perish. ¹⁶Not like these is the Lord, the portion of Jacob, for he is the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who live under siege! ¹⁸For thus says the Lord: I am going to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them, so that they shall feel it. ¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is severe. But I said, “Truly this is my punishment, and I must bear it.” ²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; my children have gone from me, and they are no more; there is no one to spread my tent again, and to set up my curtains. ²¹For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered. ²²Hear, a noise! Listen, it is coming— a great commotion from the land of the north to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals. ²³I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control, that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps. ²⁴Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing. ²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the peoples that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.