Jeremiah 9

All 26 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1If only my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears, so I could weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2. 2If only I had a traveler's shelter out in the wilderness! I would leave my people and walk away from them, because every one of them is an adulterer — a whole crowd of traitors.
3. 3"They bend their tongues like bows, shooting lies instead of arrows. They grow powerful in the land, but not through truth. They go from one evil to the next, and they don't know me," says the LORD.
4. 4"Watch out for your neighbors, and don't trust even your own brother. Every brother is a schemer, and every neighbor goes around spreading slander.
5. 5They all deceive each other and refuse to speak the truth. They've trained their tongues to lie, and they exhaust themselves doing wrong.
6. 6You live surrounded by deceit. Because of their deceit, they refuse to know me," says the LORD.
7. 7So the LORD of hosts says, "I'm going to refine them and test them. What else can I do for the daughter of my people?"
8. 8Their tongue is a deadly arrow — it speaks nothing but deceit. A man talks peacefully to his neighbor's face, but in his heart he's planning an ambush.
9. 9Shouldn't I punish them for these things? says the LORD. Shouldn't my soul be avenged on a nation like this?
10. 10I will weep and wail over the mountains and mourn for the wilderness pastures, because they've been scorched so badly that no one travels through them anymore. No lowing of cattle can be heard. The birds of the heavens and the animals have all fled — they're gone.
11. 11I will turn Jerusalem into ruins, a home for jackals. I will make the cities of Judah empty, with no one living there.
12. 12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is the one to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, so he can explain it? Why has the land been destroyed and scorched like a desert, with no one passing through?
13. 13The LORD says, "Because they have abandoned my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked in it."
14. 14Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their own hearts and chased after the Baals, just as their fathers taught them to do."
15. 15So the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says, "I will feed these people bitter wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
16. 16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ever knew. And I will send the sword after them until I have completely destroyed them."
17. 17The LORD of hosts says, 'Consider this and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come.'
18. 18Tell them to hurry and raise a wail over us, until tears stream from our eyes and water pours from our eyelids."
19. 19A cry of grief is heard from Zion: 'We are ruined! We are utterly devastated because we have forsaken the land, and our dwellings have cast us out.'
20. 20So listen to the LORD's word, you women. Let your ears take in what he says. Teach your daughters how to wail, and teach your neighbors songs of mourning.
21. 21Death has climbed through our windows and crept into our palaces. It snatches children from the streets and young men from the public squares.
22. 22Declare this — the LORD says: "Dead bodies will fall like dung on the open fields, like cut grain left behind the harvester, with no one to gather them."
23. 23The LORD says, "The wise should not boast in their wisdom. The strong should not boast in their strength. The rich should not boast in their riches.
24. 24But let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices faithful love, judgment, and righteousness on the earth. For in these things I delight, says the LORD.
25. 25"The days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all those who are circumcised along with the uncircumcised."
26. 26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all those in the farthest corners who live in the wilderness. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.