Jeremiah 9:12-22

Ruin and Exile Threatened

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." 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.' "