Jeremiah 9 - Easy To Read Version

¹ If my head was filled with water,\par and if my eyes were a fountain of tears,\par I would cry day and night\par for my people that have been destroyed.\par

² If only I had a place in the desert,\par a house where travelers spend the night,\par I could leave my people.\par I could go away from those people.\par Why? Because they are all unfaithful to God.\par They have all turned against him.\par

³ “Those people use their tongues like a bow;\par lies fly from their mouths like arrows.\par Lies, not truth, have grown strong in this land.\par Those people go from one sin to another.\par They don’t know me.”\par The Lord said these things.\par

⁴ “Watch your neighbors!\par Don’t trust your own brothers!\par Why? Because every brother is a cheat.\par Every neighbor talks behind your back.\par

⁵ Every person lies to his neighbor.\par No person speaks the truth.\par The people of Judah have taught\par their tongues to lie.\par They sinned until they were too tired\par to come back.\par

⁶ One bad thing followed another.\par And lies followed lies.\par The people refused to know me.”\par The Lord said those things.\par

⁷ So, the Lord All-Powerful says:\par “A worker heats metal in a fire\par to test if it is pure.\par I will test the people of Judah like that.\par I have no other choice.\par My people have sinned.\par

⁸ The people of Judah have tongues\par that are like sharp arrows.\par Their mouths speak lies.\par Each person speaks nice to his neighbor.\par But he is secretly planning ways\par to attack his neighbor.\par

⁹ I should punish the people of Judah.”\par This message is from the Lord.\par “You know that I should punish\par that kind of people.\par I should give them the punishment\par that they deserve.”\par

¹⁰ I (Jeremiah) will cry loud for the mountains.\par I will sing a funeral song\par for the empty fields.\par Why? Because the living things\par were taken away.\par No person travels there now.\par The sounds of cattle can’t be heard there.\par The birds have flown away\par and the animals are gone.\par

¹¹ “I (the Lord) will make the city of Jerusalem\par a pile of garbage.\par It will be a home for jackals. {\cf2\super [75]} \par I will destroy the cities in the land of Judah,\par so no one will live there.”\par

¹² Is there a man that is wise enough to understand these things?\par Is there some person that has been taught by the Lord?\par Can anyone explain the Lord’s message?\par Why was the land ruined?\par Why was it made like an empty desert where no people go?\par

¹³ The Lord answered these questions. He said,\par “It is because the people of Judah quit following my teachings.\par I gave them my teachings,\par but they refused to listen to me.\par They did not follow my teachings.\par

¹⁴ The people of Judah lived their own way.\par They were stubborn.\par They followed the false god Baal. {\cf2\super [76]} \par Their fathers taught them to follow\par those false gods.”\par

¹⁵ So the Lord All-Powerful,\par the God of Israel, says,\par “I will soon make the people of Judah\par eat bitter food.\par I will make them drink poisoned water.\par

¹⁶ I will scatter the people of Judah\par through other nations.\par They will live in strange nations.\par They and their fathers never knew\par about those countries.\par I will send men with swords.\par Those men will kill the people of Judah.\par They will kill them until the people\par are finished.”\par

¹⁷ This is what the Lord All-Powerful says:\par “Now, think about these things!\par Call for the women that get paid\par to cry at funerals.\par Send for the people that are good\par at that job.\par

¹⁸ \{The people say,\}\par ‘Let those women come quickly\par and cry for us.\par Then our eyes will fill with tears,\par and streams of water will come\par out of our eyes.’\par

¹⁹ “The sound of loud crying\par is heard from Zion {\cf2\super [77]} :\par ‘We are truly ruined!\par We are truly ashamed!\par We must leave our land,\par because our houses have been destroyed.\par Now our houses are only piles of rock.’”\par

²⁰ Now, women of Judah,\par listen to the message from the Lord.\par Listen to the words from the Lord’s mouth.\par \{The Lord says,\}\par “Teach your daughters how to cry loud.\par Each woman must learn to sing\par this funeral song:\par

²¹ ‘Death has come.\par Death climbed in through our windows.\par Death came into our palaces. {\cf2\super [78]} \par Death has come to our children\par that play in the streets.\par Death has come to the young men\par that meet in the public places.’\par

²² “Jeremiah, say these things:\par ‘The Lord says,\par Dead bodies will lie in the fields\par like dung.\par Their bodies will lie on the ground\par like grain a farmer has cut.\par But there will be no one to gather them.’”\par

²³ The Lord says:\par “Wise men must not brag\par about their wisdom.\par Strong men must not brag\par about their strength.\par Rich men must not brag\par about their money.\par

²⁴ But if someone wants to brag,\par then let him brag about these things:\par Let him brag that he learned to know me.\par Let him brag that he understands\par that I am the Lord\par that I am kind and fair and\par that I do good things on earth.\par I love those things.”\par This message is from the Lord.\par

²⁵ This message is from the Lord. “The time is coming when I will punish all the people that are circumcised {\cf2\super [79]} only in the body.

²⁶ I am talking about the people of the nations of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the people that live in the desert. The men in all those countries really were not circumcised in their bodies. But the people from the family of Israel were not circumcised in their hearts.”\par