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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! 

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Oh that I had in the desert A travelers' lodging place, That I might leave my people And go from them! For all of them are adulterers, A solemn assembly of treacherous men. 

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"They bend their tongue _like_ their bow; Lies and unfaithfulness prevail in the land, For they go onward from evil to evil, And they do not know Me," declares Yahweh. 

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"Let everyone beware of his neighbor, And do not trust any brother, Because every brother surely supplants, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. 

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Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing iniquity. 

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Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me," declares Yahweh. 

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Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Behold, I will refine them and test them; For what _else_ can I do, because of the daughter of My people? 

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Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him. 

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Shall I not punish them for these things?" declares Yahweh. "On a nation such as this Shall I not avenge Myself? 

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"For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the wilderness a _funeral_ lamentation, Because they are turned into ruin 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. 

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I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant." 

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Who is the wise man that may understand this? And _who is_ he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, turned into ruin like a desert, so that no one passes through? 

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Yahweh said, "Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice nor walked according to it, 

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but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them," 

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therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 

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I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them." 

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Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Carefully consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come! 

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Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water. 

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For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How we are destroyed! We are put to great shame, For we have left the land Because they have cast down our dwellings.'" 

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Indeed, hear the word of Yahweh, O you women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a _funeral_ lamentation. 

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For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To cut off the infants from the streets, The choice men from the open squares. 

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Speak, "Thus declares Yahweh, 'The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather _them_.'" 

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Thus says Yahweh, "Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might; let not a rich man boast in his riches, 

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but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Yahweh who shows lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares Yahweh. 

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"Behold, the days are coming," declares Yahweh, "that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised-- 

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Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."