Jeremiah 9

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Would that I had in the desert a travelers' lodge! That I might leave my people and depart from them. They are all adulterers, a faithless band.	1 Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.
2 They ready their tongues like a drawn bow; with lying, and not with truth, they hold forth in the land. They go from evil to evil, but me they know not, says the LORD.	2 Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.
3 Be on your guard, everyone against his neighbor; put no trust in any brother. Every brother apes Jacob, the supplanter, every friend is guilty of slander.	3 And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
4 Each one deceives the other, no one speaks the truth. They have accustomed their tongues to lying, and are perverse, and cannot repent.	4 Let every man take heed of his neighbor, and let his not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
5 Violence upon violence, deceit upon deceit: They refuse to recognize me, says the LORD.	5 And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have laboured to commit iniquity.
6 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I will smelt them and test them; how else should I deal with their wickedness?	6 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: Through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.
7 A murderous arrow is his tongue, his mouth utters deceit; He speaks cordially with his friends, but in his heart he lays an ambush!	7 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and try them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?
8 For these things, says the LORD, shall I not punish them? On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?	8 Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait for him.
9 Over the mountains, break out in cries of lamentation, over the pasture lands, intone a dirge: They are scorched, and no man crosses them, unheard is the bleat of the flock; Birds of the air as well as beasts, all have fled, and are gone.	9 Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
10 I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; The cities of Judah I will make into a waste, where no one dwells.	10 For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts they are gone away and departed.
11 Who is so wise that he can understand this? Let him to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken make it known: Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wasteland untraversed?	11 And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.
12 The LORD answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and have not followed it or listened to my voice,	12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why the land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none passeth through?
13 but followed rather the hardness of their hearts and the Baals, as their fathers had taught them;	13 And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.
14 therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to eat and poison to drink.	14 But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
15 I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.	15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Attention! tell the wailing women to come, summon the best of them;	16 And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they be consumed.
17 Let them come quickly and intone a dirge for us, That our eyes may be wet with weeping, our cheeks run with tears.	17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste:
18 The dirge is heard from Zion: Ruined we are, and greatly ashamed; We must leave the land, give up our homes!	18 Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.
19 Hear, you women, the word of the LORD, let your ears receive his message. Teach your daughters this dirge, and each other this lament.	19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our dwellings are cast down.
20 Death has come up through our windows, has entered our palaces; It cuts down the children in the street, young people in the squares.	20 Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and every one her neighbor mourning.
21 The corpses of the slain lie like dung on a field, Like sheaves behind the harvester, with no one to gather them.	21 For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our houses to destroy the children from without, the young men from the streets.
22 Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man glory in his riches;	22 Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the mower, and there is none to gather it.
23 But rather, let him who glories, glory in this, that in his prudence he knows me, Knows that I, the LORD, bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth; For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.	23 Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 See, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will demand an account of all those circumcised in their flesh:	24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
25 Egypt and Judah, Edom and the Ammonites, Moab and the desert dwellers who shave their temples. For all these nations, like the whole house of Israel, are uncircumcised in heart.	25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
	26 Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.