Jeremiah 9:12-22

Ruin and Exile Threatened

¹² Who is the wise man that may understand this ? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken , that he may declare it? Why e is the land ruined , laid waste like a desert , so e that no one passes through ? ¹³ 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 have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals , as 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 poisoned water to drink . ¹⁶ "I will scatter them among the nations , whom neither they nor their fathers have known ; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them." ¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts , "Consider and call for the mourning women , that they may come ; And send for the wailing women , that they may come ! ¹⁸ "Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water . ¹⁹ "For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion , ' How are we ruined ! We are put to great shame , For we have left the land , Because they have cast down our dwellings .' " ²⁰ Now hear the word of the Lord , O you women , And let your ear receive the word of His mouth ; Teach your daughters wailing , And everyone her neighbor a dirge . ²¹ For death has come up through our windows ; It has entered our palaces To cut off the children from the streets , The young men from the town squares . ²² Speak , "Thus says the Lord , 'The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field , And like the sheaf after e the reaper , But no one will gather them."'