Jeremiah 9:9-16

9Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “Shall I not avenge Myself On such a nation as this?

10“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness, Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them]; Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

11I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt and dwelling place of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

12Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

13The Lord said, “Because they have turned away from My law which I set before them, and have not listened to and obeyed My voice nor walked in accordance with it,

14but have walked stubbornly after their [own] heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

15therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

16I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them.”