1Who would give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfarers, that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
2And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood; and not for faithfulness are they mighty in the land; for from evil to evil they go forth, and Me they do not know, declares YHWH.
3Each man (ish) of his neighbor—beware! And in any brother do not trust; for every brother utterly supplants, and every neighbor walks about as a slanderer.
4And each man (ish) deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak truth; they have taught their tongue to speak falsehood; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
5Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, declares YHWH.
6Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts (tzevaot): Behold, I will smelt them and test them; for how else should I do because of the daughter of My people?
7A slaying arrow is their tongue; it speaks deceit; with his mouth he speaks peace to his neighbor, but within him he sets his ambush.
8Shall I not punish them for these things? declares YHWH. Shall My soul (nephesh) not avenge itself on a nation such as this?
9For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation; for they are burned up, with none passing through, and they do not hear the voice of cattle; from the bird of the heavens even to the beast they have fled, they are gone.
10And I will make Jerusalem into heaps, a dwelling of great sea-creatures (tannin); and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitant.
11Who is the wise man (ish), that he may understand this? And to whom has the mouth of YHWH spoken, that he may declare it? For what reason has the land perished, been burned up like the wilderness, with none passing through?
12And YHWH said: Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not heard My voice, nor walked in it,
13but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,
14therefore thus says YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), the God of Israel: Behold, I am feeding this people with wormwood, and I will give them water of gall to drink.
15And I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send after them the sword until I have consumed them.
16Thus says YHWH of hosts (tzevaot): Consider, and call for the wailing women, that they may come; and to the wise women send, that they may come;
17and let them hasten and lift up a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush water.
18For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are devastated! We are greatly ashamed, for we have forsaken the land, for they have cast off our tabernacles (mishkan).
19For hear, O women, the word of YHWH, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth; and teach your daughters a wailing, and each woman (ishah) her neighbor a lamentation.
20For death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, to cut off the child from the street, the young men from the squares.
21Speak: Thus declares YHWH: And the carcass of man (adam) shall fall like dung upon the face of the field, and like a handful after the harvester, with none gathering.
22Thus says YHWH: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches.
23But in this let him who glories glory: in understanding and knowing Me, that I am YHWH, doing lovingkindness, judgment (mishpat), and righteousness in the earth; for in these I delight, declares YHWH.
24Behold, days are coming, declares YHWH, that I will punish all the circumcised in uncircumcision:
25upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all who are clipped at the corner of the hair, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.