8. Their tongues are like sharp arrows.Their mouths speak lies.Everyone speaks nicely to his neighbor,but he is secretly planning to attack him.
9. Shouldn’t I punish the people for doing this?” says the Lord.“Shouldn’t I give a nation like this the punishment it deserves?”
10. I, Jeremiah, will cry loudly for the mountainsand sing a funeral song for the empty fields.They are empty, and no one passes through.The mooing of cattle cannot be heard.The birds have flown away,and the animals are gone.
11. “I, the Lord, will make the city of Jerusalem a heap of ruins,a home for wild dogs.I will destroy the cities of Judahso no one can live there.”
12. What person is wise enough to understand these things? Is there someone who has been taught by the Lord who can explain them? Why was the land ruined? Why has it been made like an empty desert where no one goes?
13. The Lord answered, “It is because Judah quit following my teachings that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or done what I told them to do.
14. Instead, they were stubborn and followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them to do.
15. So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will soon make the people of Judah eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.