1. Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, and I would weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2. Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for wayfaring men, and I would leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3. “And they bend their tongue like a bow. Falsehood, and not truth, prevails on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they have not known Me,” declares יהוה.
4. “Let everyone beware of his neighbour and not trust any brother. For every brother catches by the heel, and every neighbour walks with slanderers.
5. “And everyone deceives his neighbour, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood, and have wearied themselves to crook.
6. “You live in the midst of deceit; through deceit they have refused to know Me,” declares יהוה.
7. Therefore thus said יהוה of hosts, “See, I shall refine them, and shall try them, for what shall I do because of the daughter of My people?
8. “Their tongue is an arrow shot out. It speaks deceit – speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush.
9. “Would I not punish them for this?” declares יהוה. “Would I not revenge Myself on such a nation as this?”