9) deceit;
If peace any speak to his friend
In his heart he lays ambush.
Shall I not visit for such-- 9
Rede of the Lord--
Nor on a nation like this
Myself take vengeance?

Raise for the mountains a wail,(400) 10
For the meads of the pasture a dirge!
They are waste, with never a man(401)
Nor hear the lowing of cattle.
From the birds of heaven to the beasts
They have fled, they are gone.
I will make Jerusalem heaps, 11
Of jackals the lair,
And the townships of Judah lay waste,
With never a dweller.
Who is the man that is wise 12
To lay this to mind,
As the mouth of the Lord hath told him,
So to declare--
The wherefore the country is perished,
And waste as the desert,
With none to pass over!

13. And the Lord said unto me,(402) Because they forsook My Law
which I set before them, and hearkened not to My Voice,(403) [14]
but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart, and after
the Baals, as their fathers taught them. 15. Therefore thus saith
the Lord(404) the God of Israel, Behold I will give them wormwood
to eat and the waters of poison to drink. 16. And I will scatter
them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers knew,
and send after them the sword till I have consumed them.

Thus saith the Lord: 17
Call the keening women to come,
And send for the wise ones,
That they come and make haste(405) 18
To lift us a dirge,
Till with tears our eyes run down,
Our eyelids with water.
For hark! from Sion the voice of wailing, 19
"How we are undone!
"Sore abashed we, land who have left,
Our homes overthrown!"(406)

Hear, O women, the saying of the Lord, 20
Your ears take in the word of His mouth,
Teach the lament to your daughters
Each to her comrade the dirge:
"For Death has come up by our windows 21
And into our palaces,
Cutting off from the streets the children
The youths from the places;(407)
And the corpses of men are fallen 22
As dung on the field,
As sheaves left after the reaper
And nobody gathers!"

Thus saith the Lord: 23
Boast not the wise in his wisdom,
Boast not the strong in his strength,
Boast not the rich in his riches,
But he that would boast in this let him boast, 24
Insig