1: Oh that my head were waters, and mine 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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2: Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring
men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all
adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. |
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3:
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they
are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil
to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. |
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4: Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in
any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every
neighbour will walk with slanders. |
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5: And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not
speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary
themselves to commit iniquity. |
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6: Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit
they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. |
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7: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt
them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
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8: Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one
speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he
layeth his wait. |
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9: Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? |
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10: For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and
for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are
burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the
voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are
fled; they are gone. |
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11: And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I
will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. |
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12: Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he
to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for
what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none
passeth through? |
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13: And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I
set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
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14: But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and
after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: |
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15: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel;
Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them
water of gall to drink. |
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16: I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they
nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I
have consumed them. |
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17: Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the
mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that
they may come: |
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18: And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that
our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
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19: For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we
spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land,
because our dwellings have cast us out. |
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20: Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear
receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and
every one her neighbour lamentation. |
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21: For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into
our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men
from the streets. |
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22: Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall
fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the
harvestman, and none shall gather them. |
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23: Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich
man glory in his riches: |
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24: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
things I delight, saith the LORD. |
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25: Behold, the days come, ith the LORD, that I will punish all
them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; |
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26: Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and
Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the
wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house
of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. |