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Sin
and Punishment (continued)
9:1 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!
9:2 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.
9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies:
but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for
they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith
the LORD.
9:4 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 walk with slanders.
9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will
not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak
lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
9:6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through
deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
9:7 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will
melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter
of my people?
9:8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh
deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his
mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the
LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and
wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a
lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can
pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the
cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled;
they are gone.
9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons;
and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an
inhabitant.
9:12 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, for what the land perisheth and is burned up
like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
9:13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law
which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice,
neither walked therein;
9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own
heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
9:15 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.
9:16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom
neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a
sword after them, till I have consumed them.
9:17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call
for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for
cunning women, that they may come:
9:18 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.
9:19 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 our dwellings have cast us out.
9:20 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.
9:21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered
into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and
the young men from the streets.
9:22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men
shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful
after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
9:23 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:
9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which
exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the
earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
9:25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will
punish all them which are circumcised with the
uncircumcised;
9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon,
and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell
in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised,
and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. |
Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
