Jeremiah 9:12-26

Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? The LORD said, “Because they have turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it, but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink. I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.” Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider and call for the mourning women to come; Send for the wailing women to come. “Let them hurry and take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears And our eyelids flow with water. “For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] from Zion: ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly perplexed and utterly shamed, Because we have left the land, Because they have torn down our dwellings.’ ” Now hear the word of the LORD, O you women, And let your ear hear the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters a song of mourning, And each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge. For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces, Cutting off the children from the streets And the young men from the town squares. Speak, “Thus says the LORD, ‘The dead bodies of men will fall like dung on the open field, And like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, And no one will gather them.’ ” [Jer 8:2] Thus says the LORD, “Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance; but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the LORD who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the LORD. [1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17] “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised [physically] and yet uncircumcised [spiritually]— [Rom 2:25-29] Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those who live in the desert who clip off the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised (sinful, impure), and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”