9:1  OH, THAT my head were waters and my eyes a reservoir of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

9:2  Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers [rendering worship to idols instead of to the Lord, Who has espoused the people to Himself]; they are a gang of treacherous men [faithless even to each other].

9:3  And they bend their tongue, [which is] their bow for the lies [they shoot]. And not according to faithfulness do they rule {and} become strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know {and} understand {and} acknowledge Me, says the Lord.

9:4  Let everyone beware of his neighbor and put no trust in any brother. For every brother is an utter {and} complete supplanter (one who takes by the heel and trips up, a deceiver, a Jacob), and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

9:5  And they deceive {and} mock every one his neighbor and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.

9:6  Your habitation is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; through deceit they refuse to know {and} understand Me, says the Lord.

9:7  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them [by the process of affliction to remove the dross] and test them, for how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

9:8  Their tongue is a murderous arrow; it speaks deceitfully; one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays snares and waits in ambush for him.

9:9  Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

9:10  For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing and for the pastures of the wilderness a lament, because they are burned up {and} desolated, so that no one passes through [them]; neither can men hear [any longer] the lowing of cattle. Both the fowls of the air and the beasts have fled, they are gone!

9:11  I will make Jerusalem heaps [of ruins], a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

9:12  Who is the wise man who may understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined {and} laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through it?

9:13  And the Lord says, Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to {and} obeyed My voice or walked in accordance with it

9:14  But have walked stubbornly after their own hearts and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,

9:15  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them bitter {and} poisonous water to drink.

9:16  I will scatter them also among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword among them {and} after them until I have consumed them.

9:17  Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come.

9:18  Let them make haste and raise a wailing over us {and} for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush with water.

9:19  For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] out of Zion: How we are plundered {and} ruined! We are greatly confounded {and} utterly put to shame, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings [our dwellings that have cast us out].

9:20  Yet hear the word of the Lord, O you women, and let your ears receive the word of His mouth; teach your daughters a lament, and each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.

9:21  For death has come up into our windows; it has entered into our palaces, cutting off the children from outdoors and the young men from the streets.

9:22  Speak, Thus says the Lord: The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung on the open field and like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, and none shall gather them.

9:23  Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise {and} skillful person glory {and} boast in his wisdom {and} skill; let not the mighty {and} powerful person glory {and} boast in his strength {and} power; let not the person who is rich [in physical gratification and earthly wealth] glory {and} boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] riches;

9:24  But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

9:25  Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all who though circumcised [outwardly, in the flesh] are still uncircumcised [in corresponding inward purity]--

9:26  Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab [all of whom are related except Egypt], and all who live in the desert and who clip off the corners of their hair {and} beards; for all these nations are uncircumcised [in heart], and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.