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A Lament over Zion
Jeremiah 9:1–26 is a lament that grieves over ruin, exposes deceit, explains why judgement comes, and ends by redefining what counts as true honour before Yahweh.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
Within this poem, sorrow for the people and land is matched by Yahweh’s words about lies, refusal to know him, and forsaking his law. The passage moves through judgement, public mourning, death imagery, and a closing warning against trusting outward signs alone.
Jeremiah 9:1–26Main takeaway
This lament shows that Yahweh rejects deceitful, stubborn hearts and values people who truly know him in the way he describes.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Tears and treacheryThe poem begins with intense grief, using the image of endless tears for the slain of the people.
Explanation
The poem begins with intense grief, using the image of endless tears for the slain of the people. The wish to leave them shows how painful their condition is. They are described as adulterers and treacherous, so the lament is not only sad but morally serious from the start.
02Tongues shaped by deceitYahweh says falsehood has become powerful in the land. Neighbours, brothers, and friends cannot be trusted because slander and lies spread everywhere.
Explanation
Yahweh says falsehood has become powerful in the land. Neighbours, brothers, and friends cannot be trusted because slander and lies spread everywhere. Their speech is compared to a bow and a deadly arrow. The core problem is deeper than bad manners: through deceit they refuse to know Yahweh.
03Why the land is ruinedYahweh announces testing and punishment, then the poem turns to burned pastures, silent livestock, ruined Jerusalem, and desolate cities.
Explanation
Yahweh announces testing and punishment, then the poem turns to burned pastures, silent livestock, ruined Jerusalem, and desolate cities. When the question is asked about why the land has perished, Yahweh answers clearly: they forsook his law, did not obey his voice, and followed stubborn hearts and the Baals.
04Bitter judgement and trained mourningYahweh says he will feed the people wormwood, give poisoned water, and scatter them among nations.
Explanation
Yahweh says he will feed the people wormwood, give poisoned water, and scatter them among nations. Then he calls for skilled mourning women to raise a wailing over Zion’s ruin. The women are told to teach lament, because death has entered homes and public places, cutting off both children and young men.
05True glory and the heartThe death imagery continues with unburied bodies in the open field. After this, Yahweh says wisdom, might, and riches are not proper grounds for glory.
Explanation
The death imagery continues with unburied bodies in the open field. After this, Yahweh says wisdom, might, and riches are not proper grounds for glory. True glory is understanding and knowing Yahweh as the one who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness. Outward circumcision alone does not count, because Israel can be uncircumcised in heart.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does the poem connect deceitful speech with not knowing Yahweh?
Look at the repeated focus on lies and slander, then notice Yahweh’s statement that through deceit they refuse to know him.
02What direct reasons does Yahweh give for the land’s destruction?
Start with the question in verse 12 and read the answer in verses 13 and 14 without adding other causes.
03What contrast shapes the end of the passage?
Compare the things people must not glory in with the kind of knowing and heart condition Yahweh says matters.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Jeremiah 9:1–26
1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
4“Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.
5Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
7Therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?
10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.
11“I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13Yahweh says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways,
14but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”
15Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
16I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come. Send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18Let 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.
19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”
20Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
21For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
22Speak, “Yahweh says, “ ‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester. No one will gather them.’ ”
23Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.
25“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh:
26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”