Jeremiah 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears — I would weep day and night for the slaughtered among my people.

Oh, that I had a traveler's shelter in the desert! I would leave my people and walk away from them. Because they are all unfaithful, a crowd of traitors.

They bend their tongues like bows, loaded with lies instead of truth. They go from one wrong to the next, and they do not know me, declares Yahweh.

Watch out for your neighbors, don't trust even your own brother. Because every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor walks around spreading slander.

Everyone cons their neighbor, no one speaks the truth. They have trained their tongues to lie — they exhaust themselves doing wrong.

You live surrounded by deception. In their deception, they refuse to know me, declares Yahweh.

So this is what Yahweh, the Commander of Armies, says: Watch — I am going to refine them and test them. What else can I do with my people?

Their tongue is a deadly arrow, it speaks nothing but deception. With their mouth they speak peace to their neighbor, but in their heart they set an ambush.

Should I not bring them to account for this? declares Yahweh. Should I not take justice against a nation like this?

Over the mountains I will raise weeping and wailing, over the open pastures a funeral song, because they are scorched and emptied — no one passes through, no sound of cattle can be heard. The birds of the sky and the animals have all fled and gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a den for jackals. I will make the towns of Judah desolate, with no one left living in them.

Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has heard the word from Yahweh's own mouth and can explain it? Why has the land been destroyed, scorched like a desert no one crosses?

And Yahweh said: Because they abandoned my instruction that I set before them, and did not listen to my voice or follow it.

Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and chased after the Baals, just as their ancestors taught them to do.

So this is what Yahweh, the Commander of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Watch — I am going to feed this people bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink.

I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have ever known, and I will send the sword chasing after them until I have finished them off.

This is what Yahweh, the Commander of Armies, says: Pay attention! Call for the mourning women to come. Send for the most skilled among them.

Let them come quickly and raise a wail over us, until our eyes overflow with tears and our eyelids stream with water.

The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'We are devastated! We are completely shamed! We must leave the land because they have torn down our homes.'

Now hear the word of Yahweh, you women. Let your ears take in what his mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail. Each woman, teach your neighbor the funeral song.

Death has climbed through our windows, it has entered our fortresses. It cuts down the children in the streets and the young men in the town squares.

Speak! This is what Yahweh declares: The corpses of the people will fall like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the harvester that no one gathers up.

This is what Yahweh says: The wise should not boast about their wisdom. The strong should not boast about their strength. The rich should not boast about their wealth.

But if anyone boasts, let them boast about this: that they understand and know me — that I am Yahweh, who acts with loyal love, justice, and what is right on the earth. Because these are what I delight in, declares Yahweh.

The days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will bring judgment on everyone who is circumcised only in their body —

Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the desert dwellers who shave their temples. Because all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.