Berean Standard Bible

Jeremiah 9:17-25

17This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Take note, and summon the wailing women;send for the most skillful among them.18Let them come quicklyand take up a lament over us,that our eyes may overflow with tears,and our eyelids may gush with water.19For the sound of wailingis heard from Zion:‘How devastated we are!How great is our shame!For we have abandoned the landbecause our dwellings have been torn down.’”

20Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD.Open your ears to the word of His mouth.Teach your daughters to wail,and one another to lament.21For death has climbed in through our windows;it has entered our fortressesto cut off the children from the streets,the young men from the town squares.

22Declare that this is what the LORD says:

“The corpses of men will fall like dungupon the open field,like newly cut grain behind the reaper,with no one to gather it.”

23This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,nor the strong man in his strength,nor the wealthy man in his riches.24But let him who boasts boast in this,that he understands and knows Me,that I am the LORD,1who exercises loving devotion,2justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,”declares the LORD.

25“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—

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Notes

1. Jeremiah 9:24 Cited in 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17 ↩
2. Jeremiah 9:24 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Jeremiah 9