9:1 (8:23) Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Bat Ami (My People)!
9:2 (9:1) Oh that I had in the wilderness a malon orkhim (lodging place of travelers); that I might leave My people, and go from them! for they [be] all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
9:3 (9:2) And they bend their tongues [like] their bow [for] lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith YHWH (יהוה).
9:4 (9:3) Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
9:5 (9:4) And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, [and] weary themselves to commit iniquity.
9:6 (9:5) Thine habitation [is] in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith YHWH (יהוה).
9:7 (9:6) Therefore thus saith YHWH (יהוה) Tzva'ot:
Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the Bat Ami (My People)?
9:8 (9:7) Their tongue [is as] an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: [one] speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
9:9 (9:8) Shall I not visit them for these [things]? saith YHWH (יהוה): shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
9:10 (9:9) For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through [them]; neither can [men] hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
9:11 (9:10) And I will make YeruShalayim heaps, [and] a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Yehudah desolate, without an inhabitant.
9:12 (9:11) Who [is] the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is he] to whom the mouth of YHWH (יהוה) hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth [and] is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
9:13 (9:12) And YHWH (יהוה) saith:
Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein;
9:14 (9:13) But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after ba'alim, which their fathers taught them:
9:15 (9:14) Therefore thus saith YHWH (יהוה) Tzva'ot:
Elohei Yisrael; Behold, I will feed them, [even] this people, with la'anah (wormwood), and give them mei-rosh (מי־ראשׁ water of gall, poisoned water) to drink.
9:16 (9:15) I will scatter them also among ha Goyim, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
9:17 (9:16) Thus saith YHWH (יהוה) Tzva'ot:
Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning [women], that they may come:
9:18 (9:17) And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
9:19 (9:18) For a voice of wailing is heard out of Tzyon (ציון), How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast [us] out.
9:20 (9:19) Yet hear Dvar YHWH (יהוה), O ye women, and let your ear receive Dvar his mouth, and teach your banot wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.
9:21 (9:20) For death is come up into our windows, [and] is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, [and] the young men from the streets.
9:22 (9:21) Speak, Thus saith YHWH (יהוה):
Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather [them].
9:23 (9:22) Thus saith YHWH (יהוה):
Let not the wise [man] glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty [man] glory in his might, let not the rich [man] glory in his riches:
9:24 (9:23) But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that Ani (אני) YHWH (יהוה) which exercise chesed (חסד), misphat (משׁפּט), and tzedekah (צדקה), b'eretz (בארץ): for in these [things] I chaphetz (חפץ, delight), saith YHWH (יהוה).
9:25 (9:24) Hinnei, the days come, saith YHWH (יהוה), that I will punish all [them which are] circumcised with the uncircumcised;
9:26 (9:25) Mitzrayim, and Yehudah, and Edom, and benai Ammon, and Mo'av, and all [that are] in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all [these] nations [are] uncircumcised, and all beit Yisrael [are] uncircumcised in the heart.