1-2 I wish my head were a well of water
    and my eyes fountains of tears
So I could weep day and night
    for casualties among my dear, dear people.
At times I wish I had a wilderness hut,
    a backwoods cabin,
Where I could get away from my people
    and never see them again.
They’re a faithless, feckless bunch,
    a congregation of degenerates.

* * *

3-6 “Their tongues shoot out lies
    like a bow shoots arrows—
A mighty army of liars,
    the sworn enemies of truth.
They advance from one evil to the next,
    ignorant of me.”
        God’s Decree.
“Be wary of even longtime neighbors.
    Don’t even trust your grandmother!
Brother schemes against brother,
    like old cheating Jacob.
Friend against friend
    spreads malicious gossip.
Neighbors gyp neighbors,
    never telling the truth.
They’ve trained their tongues to tell lies,
    and now they can’t tell the truth.
They pile wrong upon wrong, stack lie upon lie,
    and refuse to know me.”
        God’s Decree.

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Oh, that I had in the desert(A)
    a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
    and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,(B)
    a crowd of unfaithful(C) people.

“They make ready their tongue
    like a bow, to shoot lies;(D)
it is not by truth
    that they triumph[a] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
    they do not acknowledge(E) me,”
declares the Lord.
“Beware of your friends;(F)
    do not trust anyone in your clan.(G)
For every one of them is a deceiver,[b](H)
    and every friend a slanderer.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 9:3 Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth
  2. Jeremiah 9:4 Or a deceiving Jacob