Jeremiah 9:9-16

9Should I not punish them for these things? This is the Lord’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

10I will raise weeping and a lament over the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness grazing land, for they have been so scorched that no one passes through. The sound of cattle is no longer heard. From the birds of the sky to the animals, everything has fled — they have gone away.

11I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, an uninhabited place.

12Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

13The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it.

14Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.”

15Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

16I will scatter them among the nations that they and their ancestors have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”