Jeremiah 9:12-22

Ruin and Exile Threatened

¹² Who is a wise man, that he may understand this? and he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished, burnt up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through? ¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not hearkened unto my voice, nor walked in it, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink, ¹⁶ and will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them. ¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skilful women, that they may come; ¹⁸ and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour forth waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled, sorely put to shame! For we have forsaken the land, for they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰ Hear then the word of Jehovah, ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and each one her companion lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up through our windows, is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the street, the young men from the broadways. ²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah: Yea, the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the reaper, and there shall be none to gather.