1. Oh that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!
2. Oh that I had in the desert A wayfarers' lodging place; That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
3. "They bend their tongue like their bow; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares the Lord.
4. "Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5. "Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth, They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6. "Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me," declares the Lord.
7. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold, I will refine them and assay them; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8. "Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9. "Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares the Lord. "On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself?
10. "For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the lowing of the cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
11. "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
12. Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?
13. 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,