3. The Lord says, “These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies.They have become powerful in the land, but they have not done so by honest means.Indeed, they do one evil thing after anotherand do not pay attention to me.
4. Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.He must not even trust any of his relatives.For every one of them will find some way to cheat him.And all of his friends will tell lies about him.
5. One friend deceives anotherand no one tells the truth.These people have trained themselves to tell lies.They do wrong and are unable to repent.
6. They do one act of violence after another,and one deceitful thing after another.They refuse to pay attention to me,”says the Lord.
7. Therefore the Lord who rules over all says,“I will now purify them in the fires of affliction and test them.The wickedness of my dear people has left me no choice.What else can I do?
8. Their tongues are like deadly arrows.They are always telling lies.Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths.But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them.
9. I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!”
10. I said, “I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains,I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wildernessbecause they are so scorched no one travels through them.The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fieldshave fled and are gone.”
11. The Lord said, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins.Jackals will make their home there.I will destroy the towns of Judahso that no one will be able to live in them.”
12. I said, “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened?Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it?Why does the land lie in ruins?Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”
13. The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.
14. Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.
15. So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say. ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment.
16. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords until I have destroyed them.’”
17. The Lord who rules over all told me to say to this people,“Take note of what I say.Call for the women who mourn for the dead!Summon those who are the most skilled at it!”
18. I said, “Indeed, let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us.Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyesand our eyelids overflow with water.
19. For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.They will wail, ‘We are utterly ruined! We are completely disgraced!For our houses have been torn downand we must leave our land.’”