A.(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! (2) Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
B.(3) And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies:
C. but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
D.(4) Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother:
D’. for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
C’.(5) And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth:
B’. they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
A’.(6) Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.(7) Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? (8) Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait. (9) Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? (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; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. (11) And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.