horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein. THE LORD For, behold, I will send serpents, basilisks, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. THE PROPHET Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off THE PEOPLE Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her King in her? THE LORD Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? THE PEOPLE The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved! THE PROPHET For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? 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! 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. And they bend their tongue as it were their bow for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth. THE LORD For they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will go about with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit : one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? iv A Lamentation for the Land The PropheT For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled, they are gone. THE LORD And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. THE PROPHET Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through? THE LORD Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them. The Mourning Women Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the cunning women, that they may come: and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.' For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion: 'How are we spoiled! 'We are greatly confounded, 'Because we have forsaken the land, 'Because they have cast down our dwellings.' Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. For death is come up into our windows, 'It is entered into our palaces; ' And the young men from the streets.' Speak, Thus saith the LORD: The carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. vi Sentences Thus saith the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, |