New American Standard Bible | ►► |
Grief over Zion 1[a]Oh, that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For those slain of the daughter of my people!
2[b]Oh that I had in the desert A travelers’ lodging place; So that I might leave my people And go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous people.
3“They bend their tongues like their bows; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” declares the LORD.
4“Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother utterly [c]betrays, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5“Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
6“Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.
7Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says: “Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8“Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9“Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?
10“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the sound of the livestock is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
11“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
12Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD |
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