| 1. O that I had in the desert a wayfarers' lodging-place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of traitors! |
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א. |
| 2. They have directed their tongue treacherously (as) their bows, and they have grown strong in the land not for the sake of truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the Lord. |
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ב. |
| 3. Let each one beware of his neighbor, and do not trust any brother; for each brother forges plans, and every neighbor spreads slander. |
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ג. |
| 4. Indeed, they deceive one another and do not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, they commit iniquity (until) they are weary. |
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ד. |
| 5. Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; because of deceit they refuse to know Me, says the Lord. |
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ה. |
| 6. Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of (the wickedness of) the daughter of My people? |
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ו. |
| 7. Their tongue is a deadly arrow, it speaks deceit; each one speaks peaceably with his mouth to his neighbor, but in his heart he lays a trap for him. |
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ז. |
| 8. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord, shall I not avenge Myself on a nation such as this? |
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ח. |
| 9. I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the dwellings of the wilderness, because they are withered and without any one passing through, and the lowing of the cattle is not heard; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast have fled and are gone. |
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ט. |
| 10. And I will make Jerusalem heaps (of ruin), a lair of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. |
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י. |
| 11. Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined (and) withered like a wilderness, without anyone passing through? |
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יא. |
| 12. And the Lord said: (It is) because they have forsaken My Law, which I set before them, and have not hearkened to My voice, nor walked by it. |
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יב. |
| 13. But they have followed the view of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them (to worship). |
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יג. |
| 14. Therefore, so thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them-this people-with wormwood, and will give them poisonous water to drink. |
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יד. |
| 15. I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them. |
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טו. |
| 16. Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Consider and call for the (hired) women mourners that they may come; and send for the skillful women, and let them come. |
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טז. |
| 17. O let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, so that our eyes may shed tears, and our eyelids gush with water. |
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יז. |
| 18. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'O how we are ruined! We are very much ashamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings!' |
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יח. |
| 19. Indeed hear, O women, the word of the Lord, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth; teach your daughters a lamentation, and each to her neighbor a dirge. |
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יט. |
| 20. For death has penetrated our windows, it has entered our palaces; to cut off the infants from the streets, and the young men from the squares. |
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כ. |
| 21. Speak; Thus says the Lord: Indeed, the carcasses of men shall fall like dung on the open field, and like sheaves after the reaper, with none to gather them! |
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כא. |
| 22. Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, nor the strong man boast of his strength, nor the rich man boast of his riches. |
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כב. |
| 23. But let him that boasts exult in this, that he understands and knows me, for I am the Lord Who practices kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord. |
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כג. |
| 24. Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish every circumcised one with his uncircumcision. |
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כד. |
| 25. Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all those cast off to the corners, who dwell in the desert, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are of uncircumcised hearts. |
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כה. |
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