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 Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through? ¹³ Yahweh says, 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 Baals, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, 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, until I have consumed them. ¹⁷ Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful 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 Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets. ²² Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather them.