Jeremiah 9 :: New International Version (NIV)

Jer 9:1

Jer 9:1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

Jer 9:2

Jer 9:2Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

Jer 9:3

Jer 9:3“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph[fn] in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,”

declares the LORD.

Jer 9:4

Jer 9:4“Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver,[fn] and every friend a slanderer.

Jer 9:5

Jer 9:5Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.

Jer 9:6

Jer 9:6You[fn] live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”

declares the LORD.

Jer 9:7

Jer 9:7Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?

Jer 9:8

Jer 9:8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.

Jer 9:9

Jer 9:9Should I not punish them for this?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”

Jer 9:10

Jer 9:10I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.

Jer 9:11

Jer 9:11“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

Jer 9:12

Jer 9:12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

Jer 9:13

Jer 9:13The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.

Jer 9:14

Jer 9:14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

Jer 9:15

Jer 9:15Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.

Jer 9:16

Jer 9:16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

Jer 9:17

Jer 9:17This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.

Jer 9:18

Jer 9:18Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.

Jer 9:19

Jer 9:19The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.’ ”

Jer 9:20

Jer 9:20Now, you women, hear the word of the LORD; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament.

Jer 9:21

Jer 9:21Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has removed the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.

Jer 9:22

Jer 9:22Say, “This is what the LORD declares: “ ‘Dead bodies will lie like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.’ ”

Jer 9:23

Jer 9:23This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches,

Jer 9:24

Jer 9:24but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”

declares the LORD.

Jer 9:25

Jer 9:25“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—

Jer 9:26

Jer 9:26Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places.[fn] For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(9:3)

Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth

(9:4)

Or a deceiving Jacob

(9:6)

That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular)

(9:26)

Or wilderness and who clip the hair by their foreheads

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For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.