4. Each one deceives the other,no one speaks the truth.They have accustomed their tongues to lying,they are perverse and cannot repent.
5. Violence upon violence,deceit upon deceit:They refuse to know me—oracle of the Lord.
6. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts:I will refine them and test them;how else should I deal with the daughter of my people?
7. A murderous arrow is their tongue,their mouths utter deceit;They speak peaceably with their neighbors,but in their hearts they lay an ambush!
8. Should I not punish them for these deeds—oracle of the Lord;on a nation such as this should I not take vengeance?
9. Over the mountains I shall break out in cries of lamentation,over the pastures in the wilderness, in a dirge:They are scorched, and no one crosses them,no sound of lowing cattle;Birds of the air as well as beasts,all have fled and are gone.
10. I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,a haunt of jackals;The cities of Judah I will make a waste,where no one dwells.
11. Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken? Let him declare it!Why is the land ravaged,scorched like a wilderness no one crosses?
12. The Lord said: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and did not listen to me or follow it,
13. but followed instead their stubborn hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors had taught them,
14. therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink.
15. I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their ancestors have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.
16. Thus says the Lord of hosts:Inquire, and call the wailing women to come;summon the most skilled of them.
17. Let them come quicklyand raise for us a dirge,That our eyes may run with tears,our pupils flow with water.
18. The sound of the dirge is heard from Zion:We are ruined and greatly ashamed;We have left the land,given up our dwellings!
19. Hear, you women, the word of the Lord,let your ears receive the word of his mouth.Teach your daughters a dirge,and each other a lament: