Jeremiah’s Lament for the Foolishness of the Jews and Their Punishment.
The Deceit of the People
1Oh, that my head were waters, an inexhaustible reservoir, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, flowing in an endless stream, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people, those who have been slain because of their sins, or those who would be slain when the Lord’s sentence upon Jerusalem would be carried out. 2Oh, that I had in the wilderness, far away from the wicked capital and the haunts of men, a lodging-place of wayfaring men, a lodge for travelers, such as are found in the desert or in the mountains, that I might leave my people and go from them! so his grief at their wickedness finds expression. For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, the entire nation being faithless to Jehovah. 3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, so that lies are the arrows which they send to their mark, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth, they do not make proper use of honesty and uprightness in their dealings; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not Me, saith the Lord, one act of wickedness following the other, all of which proves that they have no true knowledge of Jehovah. 4Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, act altogether like Jacob, Gen. 27, 36, and every neighbor will walk with slanders, as a talebearer and backbiter. 5And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they have deliberately trained themselves in wickedness, and weary themselves to commit iniquity, exerting themselves only for that purpose. 6Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit, so the Lord tells Jeremiah in characterizing the nation; through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord, their ignorance of Jehovah was due to the fact that they had hardened themselves against the truth. 7Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them and try them, testing them in the fire of tribulation; for how shall I do for the daughter of My people? The Lord has no other choice; they have brought His punishment upon themselves. 8Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, one that has been sharpened and polished; it speaketh deceit; one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait, planning to take him by treachery. 9Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Cf. chap. 5, 9. 29.
The Desolation of the Land
10For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness, for the pastures of the steppes, a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them, much less dwell there; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. 11(And) I will make Jerusalem heaps, a heap of ruins, and a den of dragons, the lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. 12Who is the wise man that may understand this? Who will heed and apply this lesson? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, giving information to others, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? 13And the Lord said, in answering the question which has just been proposed, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, whose message was brought to them by the true prophets, neither walked therein, so that their whole life was in agreement with the will of God, 14but have walked after the imagination of their own heart, following its stubbornness in every evil device, and after Baalim, becoming guilty of the same transgressions: 15therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the mighty Ruler of the heavenly armies, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, a bitter and poisonous food, and give them water of gall to drink, another poisonous substance. 16I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, into strange countries, and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. Cf. Lev. 26, 33.
17Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye and call for the mourning women, the women hired to give expression to their grief by plaintive cries and wails, that they may come; and send for cunning women, those most skilful in lamenting, that they may come; 18and let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, for the prophet himself and his people, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters. 19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled, laid waste! We are greatly confounded, covered with shame and disgrace, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out, rather, “because they have thrown down our dwellings.” 20Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, who were expressly addressed as being most deeply concerned in the expressions of grief, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters wailing and every one her neighbor lamentation. 21For death is come up into our windows, unexpectedly, secretly, and is entered into our palaces to cut off the children from without, those no longer able to play in the streets, and the young men from the streets, where they gathered for social intercourse. 22Speak, Thus saith the Lord, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, a most revolting picture, and as the handful after the harvest-man, the grain ready to be gathered into sheaves, and none shall gather them. The dead bodies would be lying in all directions, with no one to perform the last rites of burial.
The Way of Escape Rejected
23Thus saith the Lord, in once more picturing to the apostate Jews the one way of salvation, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, as though that would be sufficient to bring him redemption, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, for none of these earthly gifts may deliver in the time of God’s wrath; 24but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that being the one sound basis of all true confidence, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, doing good to men in the fulness of His grace, judgment, namely, that which is right and just, and righteousness, in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. This knowledge is worked by the Gospel. For that reason all efforts for the spread of the Gospel should be accompanied by fervent prayer for the Lord’s blessings in opening the hearts of men to a proper understanding of its message. 25Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised, literally, “every circumcision in foreskin,” that is, all those who, though circumcised outwardly, still have the foreskin of their hearts, who are Jews outwardly only, but whose heart is not right with God, 26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, the Jews with the heathen nations surrounding them, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness, literally, “all those clipped on the edge,” who have the corners of their hair cut, a custom of the desert tribes; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. A mere outward observance of the customs of religion is not enough in the sight of God; He demands the service of the heart, a worship in spirit and in truth, in the true fellowship with the Lord.