# Jeremiah 9 (New King James Version)
Disobedience Brings God's Judgment

##### Chapter 9
###### 1 Oh, 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!  

###### 2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness  
A lodging place for travelers;  
That I might leave my people,  
And go from them!  
For they _are_ all adulterers,  
An assembly of treacherous men.

###### 3 "And _like_ their bow they have bent their tongues _for_ lies.  
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.  
For they proceed from evil to evil,  
And they do not know Me," says the Lord.  

###### 4 "Everyone take heed to his neighbor,  
And do not trust any brother;  
For every brother will utterly supplant,  
And every neighbor will walk with slanderers.  

###### 5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor,  
And will not speak the truth;  
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;  
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.  

###### 6 Your dwelling place _is_ in the midst of deceit;  
Through deceit they refuse to know Me," says the Lord.

###### 7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
"Behold, I will refine them and try them;  
For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?  

###### 8 Their tongue _is_ an arrow shot out;  
It speaks deceit;  
_One_ speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,  
But in his heart he lies in wait.  

###### 9 Shall I not punish them for these _things?_" says the Lord.  
"Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?"

###### 10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,  
And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,  
Because they are burned up,  
So that no one can pass through;  
Nor can _men_ hear the voice of the cattle.  
Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;  
They are gone.

###### 11 "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals.  
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant."

###### 12 Who _is_ the wise man who may understand this? And _who is he_ to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish _and_ burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

###### 13 And the Lord said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,  
###### 14 but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,"  
###### 15 therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.  
###### 16 I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them."The People Mourn in Judgment

###### 17 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
"Consider and call for the mourning women,  
That they may come;  
And send for skillful _wailing_ women,  
That they may come.  

###### 18 Let them make haste  
And take up a wailing for us,  
That our eyes may run with tears,  
And our eyelids gush with water.  

###### 19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:  
'How we are plundered!  
We are greatly ashamed,  
Because we have forsaken the land,  
Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.' "

###### 20 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,  
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;  
Teach your daughters wailing,  
And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.  

###### 21 For death has come through our windows,  
Has entered our palaces,  
To kill off the children--_no longer to be_ outside!  
_And_ the young men--_no longer_ on the streets!

###### 22 Speak, "Thus says the Lord:
'Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field,  
Like cuttings after the harvester,  
And no one shall gather _them._' "

###### 23 Thus says the Lord:
"Let not the wise _man_ glory in his wisdom,  
Let not the mighty _man_ glory in his might,  
Nor let the rich _man_ glory in his riches;  

###### 24 But let him who glories glory in this,  
That he understands and knows Me,  
That I _am_ the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.  
For in these I delight," says the Lord.

###### 25 "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that I will punish all _who are_ circumcised with the uncircumcised--  
###### 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all _who are_ in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all _these_ nations _are_ uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel _are_ uncircumcised in the heart."