1. Oh that my rosh (head) were mayim, and mine eyes a makor dimah (a fountain of tears), that I might weep yomam valailah for the slain of the Bat Ami!
2. (9;1) Oh that I had in the midbar a malon orkhim (travelers' lodge); that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all no'afim (adulterers), an atzeret bogedim (band of treacherous traitors)
3. (2) And they bend to the ready their leshon like their keshet (bow) for sheker; but not for emunah have they prevailed in ha'aretz; for they proceed from ra'ah to ra'ah, and they know not Me, saith Hashem.
4. (3) Be ye shomer every one over his re'a (neighbor, friend) and trust ye not in kol ach (any brother); for kol ach will ya'akov (utterly supplant, deceive), and every re'a (neighbor) will holech rakhil (walk as the slanderer, gossiper).
5. (4) And they will deceive every one his re'a, and will not speak emes; they have taught their leshon to speak sheker, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6. (5) Thine habitation is in the midst of mirmah; through mirmah they refuse to know Me, saith Hashem.
7. (6) Therefore thus saith Hashem Tzva'os, Hineni, I will refine them, and test them; for what but this shall I do for the Bat Ami?
8. (7) Their leshon is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh mirmah; one speaketh shalom to his re'a with his mouth, but inwardly he lieth in ambush.
9. (8) Shall I not visit them [in punishment] for these things? saith Hashem. Shall not My Nefesh be avenged on such a Goy (nation) as this?
10. (9) I take up a weeping and nehi (lamentation) for the harim, and for the pastures of the midbar a kinah (lamentation), because they are scorched, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the mikneh (cattle); both the oph haShomayim and the behemah are fled; they are gone.
11. (10) And I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, and a ma'on of jackals; and I will make the towns of Yehudah desolate, without an inhabitant.
12. (11) Who is the ish hechacham (wise man), that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Hashem hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what HaAretz perisheth and is scorched like a midbar, that none passeth through?