Jeremiah 9:7-16

New King James Version

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, ^(A)I will refine them and ^[a]try them;
^(B)For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?
⁸Their tongue is an arrow shot out;
It speaks ^(C)deceit;
One speaks ^(D)peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
But ^[b]in his heart he ^[c]lies in wait.
⁹^(E)Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And ^(F)for the ^[d]dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.
^(G)Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;
They are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem ^(H)a heap of ruins, ^(I)a den of jackals.
I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

¹²^(J)Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

¹³And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have ^(K)not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, ¹⁴but they have ^(L)walked according to the ^[e]dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, ^(M)which their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will ^(N)feed them, this people, ^(O)with wormwood, and give them ^[f]water of gall to drink. ¹⁶I will ^(P)scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. ^(Q)And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”