1 Oh, that my head, were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, and I would weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness lodging place for wayfaring men, and I would leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3 “And they bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood, and not truth, prevails on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they have not known Me,” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
4 “Let everyone beware of his neighbour and not trust any brother. For every brother catches by the heel, and every neighbour walks with slanderers.
5 “And everyone deceives his neighbour, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood, and have wearied themselves to do wickedly.
6 “You live in the midst of deceit; through deceit they have refused to know Me,” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
7 Therefore thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, “See, I shall refine them, and shall try them, for what shall I do because of the daughter of My people?
8 “Their tongue is a slaying arrow. It speaks deceit – speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he makes his ambush.
9 “Would I not punish them for this?” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄. “Would I not revenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
10 “I shall take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they have been burned up, without any passing over, nor has the voice of cattle been heard. Both the birds of the shamayim and the beasts have fled, they have gone.
11 “And I shall make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, a habitation for jackals; and the cities of Yahuḏah I shall make a waste, without an inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise man, that he understands this? And to whom has the mouth of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 spoken, that he declares it? Why has the land perished, has it been burned up like a wilderness, with none passing through?
13 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 says, “Because they have forsaken My Torah which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,
14 but they have walked according to the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Ba’als, which their fathers had taught them.”
15 Therefore thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, “See, I am making this people eat wormwood, and I shall make them drink poisoned water.
16 “And I shall scatter them among the gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I shall send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”
17 Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, “Discern! And call for the mourning women, that they come. And send for the wise women, that they come.
18 “And let them hasten and take up a wailing for us, and let our eyes run with tears and our eyelids gush with water.
19 “For a voice of wailing is heard from Tsiyon, ‘How we are ravaged! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because we have been thrown out of our dwellings.’ ”
20 But hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, O women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth. And teach your daughters wailing, and each one her neighbour a lamentation.
21 For death has come through our windows, has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets, and the young men from the squares.
22 Speak, “Thus declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘The corpses of men shall fall as dung on the face of the field, like cuttings after the reaper, with none to gather them.’ ”
23 Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, “Let not the wise boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty boast in his might, nor let the rich boast in his riches,
24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, doing kindness, right-ruling, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
25 “See, the days are coming,” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, “when I shall punish all circumcised with the uncircumcised –
26 “Mitsrayim, and Yahuḏah, and Eḏom, and the children of Ammon, and Mo’aḇ, and all those trimmed on the edges, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the gentiles are uncircumcised, and all the house of Yisra’ĕl are uncircumcised in heart!”