13
And the LORD says: 1"Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it,
14
but 2have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.
15
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 3Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them 4poisonous water to drink.
16
5I will scatter them among the nations 6whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will 7send the sword after them, until I have consumed them."
17
Thus says the LORD of hosts: 8"Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come;
18
let them make haste 9and raise a wailing over us, 10that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.
19
For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 11'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'"
20
Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.
21
For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, 12cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.
22
Speak, "Thus declares the LORD: 13'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, 14like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'"
23
Thus says the LORD: 15"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
24
but 16let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. 17For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
25
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when 18I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh--
26
19Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and 20all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are 21uncircumcised in heart."