Jeremiah 9

Jeremiah 9:1

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 daughter of my people!

Oh that I could sufficiently bewail, since I cannot redress, this woeful desolation of Jerusalem and my people! Oh that I were all dissolved into tears, for this lamentable slaughter, which is coming upon them.

Jeremiah 9:3

And they bend their tongue like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.

They bend their tongue for lies, and slacken it for the truth; having no courage to defend it, and too much to oppose it.

Jeremiah 9:7

Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

They pretend to be pure metal; behold, I will melt them, saith the Lord, and try them in the fire of affliction; for how can I do otherwise with them, since they are utterly unreformable?

Jeremiah 9:10

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; &c.

And if, in the subversion of Jerusalem, my people shall hope to find succour in the mountains and waste deserts, I cannot but weep and wail, to think how they will be miserably disappointed there; for the rage of the enemy shall reach so far, as to burn up and destroy their most retired places, and to make them unfit for the use either of man or beast.

Jeremiah 9:11

A den of dragons.

A place of horror and desolation.

Jeremiah 9:12

Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, that he may declare it, &c.

How lamentable it is, that amongst all this people, there should be so few, if any at all, that understand and will faithfully declare what it is, that brings this destruction upon the land, &c.

Jeremiah 9:15

Behold I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Behold, instead of comfort, I will give this people the bitterest anguish and sorrow; and will bring upon them the most grievous calamity, that can be conceived.

Jeremiah 9:17

Call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come.

Call for those mourning women, that are wont to be hired for the public lamentations at funerals; and let them be set on work, to practise the saddest expressions of their wailings and sorrow.

Jeremiah 9:21

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.

For the Chaldeans have sealed our walls, and entered into our cities; and are now breaking upon us, in our houses, to inflict a sudden and cruel death upon us, wherein they will spare no age or sex, but put all mercilessly to the sword.

Jeremiah 9:25

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord, wherein I will punish all together, both Jews which are circumcised, and their uncircumcised abettors: no difference shall be made in this slaughter.

Jeremiah 9:26

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Yea, I will punish the circumcised, in their inward and spiritual uncircumcision: the Gentiles, that are in the remote corners of the world, are indeed outwardly uncircumcised; but my people, the Jews, are uncircumcised in their hearts: and this uncircumcision is so much more odious than the other, by how much the filthiness of the soul is worse than that of the body.