I want to cry
1I wish my head was full of water
and my eyes were fountains full of tears.
Then I would have cried every day and night
for my people who have died in war.
2I wish that someone would give me
a place to stay in the desert.
Then I would go there, far away from my people,
because all of them are serving_idols,
and all of them are unfaithful to the Lord.
They do not stop doing things that are wrong
3The Lord says:
‘They hurt people with the things they say,
and their words are like arrows from a bow.
They are false in the land where they live,
and they don't serve their God.
They keep on doing more and more bad things,
and they live as if they don't know Me.
4They must be careful of each other.
They can not believe each other
because everyone cheats and
says bad things about others.
5All of them are false,
and they say things to each other that are not_true.
They have learned to keep on lying,
and they can not stop doing wrong.
6They keep on oppressing and deceiving people,
and they do not want to know Me.’
This is what the Lord says.
7The Lord who rules over all says:
‘Because they do all of this,
I will punish them.
It will be like someone
who puts metal into fire to melt.
I have to do this to my people.
There is nothing else that I can do.
8The words they say are
like arrows that kill people.
They say they want peace
with other people, but they are false,
and they are just waiting for the right time
to make them suffer.
9That is why I have to punish them.
I must punish people who do bad things like that.’
This is what the Lord says.
Jeremiah will cry and mourn
10I, Jeremiah, will cry
to the mountains and in the fields.
I will mourn and sing a lamentation,
because the mountains and the fields are destroyed.
No one is living there, no sheep or goats,
and all the birds and the wild animals are gone.
11The Lord says: ‘I will destroy Jerusalem.
It will be only heaps of stones,
and foxes will live there.
I will take all the people away
from the towns and cities of Judah,
and no one will live there.’
12I, Jeremiah, asked: ‘Is there anyone
who is wise enough to understand this?
Has the Lord talked to anyone
and explained it to him?
Is there anyone who can tell us why this has happened?
Why did the Lord destroy this land?
Why did it become a desert where no people go?’
13And the Lord said to me: ‘This has happened
because the people of Judah and Jerusalem
did not do what I wanted
and because they did not listen to Me.
They did not live as I wanted them to.
14They were stubborn,
and lived as they themselves wanted to.
They served the Baals
as their forefathers had taught them.’
15God who rules over all, the God of Israel, says:
‘Because these people did this,
I will make them suffer and die.
It will be like people who have to eat
bitter food and drink poisonous water.
16I will chase them away to go
and live among other nations,
people that they and their forefathers
do not know.
I will send enemies to kill them
until they have all died.’
Call the women who are paid to cry
17The Lord who rules over all says:
‘Call the women who are paid to cry.
Let the women come who know how to mourn.’
18And the people said:
‘The women must come quickly.
They must come and mourn for us
so that our eyes will also be full of tears,
and so that we can cry with them.
19We hear the people crying in Zion.
They say: “The enemies have chased us away,
and we have lost everything.
We have to go out of our land,
because they have destroyed our homes.”
20But women, you must listen
to what the Lord says.
You must teach your daughters to mourn
and to sing a lament.
21Because there is disease in the city
and death is coming through our windows.
Our children and our young people
are dying in the streets
and on the market places.’
22You must tell them what the Lord says.
He says: ‘The bodies of the people
will fall onto the ground like dung,
or like heads_of_wheat falling down
when someone cuts it off
but there is no one to pick it up.’
If someone wants to boast
23The Lord says:
‘People who are wise must not boast
about their wisdom,
people who are strong
must not boast about their power,
and people who are rich
must not boast about their money
and what they have.
24But if anyone wants to boast,
then he must boast about this:
He must boast because he knows Me,
the Lord, and because he knows
that I do what I have promised.
I do what is right and I am good
to all the people in the world.
Yes, this is what I like doing.’
25-26The Lord says: ‘The time will come when I will punish everyone whose body has been circumcised but whose heart has not changed, everyone who does not serve Me, all of those who live in the lands of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and the people who live in the desert and shave the sides of their heads. Yes, all the Israelites are circumcised but they don't serve Me.’
