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 Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned 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 obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also 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 ye, 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 gush out with waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, [and] the young men from the streets. ²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather [them].