Jeremiah 9 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 609 to 605 BC, during Jehoiakim's reign
Location
Jerusalem and the villages of Judah, with the surrounding desert pastures emptied of herds
Audience
The people of Judah, and afterwards the exiled community reading to understand their loss
Situation
Jeremiah wishes his head were a spring of water so he could weep without stopping, and he describes a society where neighbours lie as a matter of habit and even brothers cheat each other. He calls for the professional mourning women to be summoned, because the death toll will be too large for ordinary grief.
Key Background
Funerals in the ancient Near East employed skilled women who were paid to lead wailing and compose laments, a recognised trade passed from mother to daughter, so summoning them is a formal declaration of national death rather than a poetic flourish. The chapter's image of a tongue as a drawn bow reflects a culture where a person's word in a village court carried the weight that written contracts carry now, and perjury could destroy a family. The closing list of nations who cut their hair at the temples, including Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, groups Judah with its neighbours by a shared grooming custom, making the point that a mark on the body means nothing without a changed life.
Oh, that my head were a of water, my eyes a fountain of tears — I would weep day and night for the among my people.
Oh, that I had a in the desert! I would leave my people and walk away from them. Because they are all unfaithful, a crowd of traitors.
They their bows, loaded with lies instead of truth. They go from one wrong to the next, and they do not me, declares Yahweh.
Watch out for your neighbors, don't trust even your own brother. Because every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor walks around spreading slander.
Everyone cons their neighbor, no one speaks the truth. They have their to lie — they exhaust themselves doing wrong.
You live surrounded by deception. In their deception, they refuse to me, declares Yahweh.
So this is what Yahweh, the of says: Watch — I am going to them and test them. What else can I do with my people?
Their tongue is a arrow, it speaks nothing but deception. With their mouth they speak to their neighbor, but in their heart they set an ambush.
Should I not them to for this? declares Yahweh. Should I not take justice against a nation like this?
Over the mountains I will raise weeping and wailing, over the open a song, because they are scorched and emptied — no one passes through, no sound of cattle can be heard. The birds of the sky and the animals have all fled and gone.
I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a den for jackals. I will make the towns of Judah desolate, with no one left living in them.
Who is enough to understand this? Who has heard the word from Yahweh's own mouth and can explain it? Why has the land been destroyed, scorched like a desert no one crosses?
And Yahweh said: Because they abandoned my instruction that I set before them, and did not listen to my voice or follow it.
Instead, they followed the of their own hearts and chased after the Baals, just as their ancestors taught them to do.
So this is what Yahweh, the Commander of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Watch — I am going to feed this people food and give them to drink.
I will them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have ever known, and I will send the sword chasing after them until I have finished them off.
This is what Yahweh, the Commander of Armies, says: Pay attention! Call for the to come. Send for the most skilled among them.
Let them come quickly and raise a wail over us, until our eyes overflow with tears and our eyelids stream with water.
The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'We are devastated! We are completely shamed! We must leave the land because they have torn down our homes.'
Now hear the word of Yahweh, you women. Let your ears take in what his mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail. Each woman, teach your neighbor the
Death has windows, it has entered fortresses. It cuts down the children in the streets and the young men in the town squares.
Speak! This is what Yahweh declares: The corpses of the people will fall like on the open field, like behind the harvester that no one gathers up.
This is what Yahweh says: The wise should not about their wisdom. The strong should not about their strength. The rich should not about their wealth.
But if anyone boasts, let them boast about this: that they understand and me — that I am Yahweh, who acts with love, justice, and what is on the earth. Because these are what I delight in, declares Yahweh.
The days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will bring judgment on everyone who is only in their —
Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the desert dwellers who their temples. Because all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is in