They are always ready to tell lies; dishonesty instead of truth rules the land. The LORD says, "My people do one evil thing after another and do not acknowledge me as their God."
Everyone must be on guard against their friends, and no one can trust their relatives; for all relatives are as deceitful as Jacob, and everyone slanders their friends.
They all mislead their friends, and no one tells the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie and will not give up their sinning. They do one violent thing after another, and one deceitful act follows another. The LORD says that his people reject him.
Because of this the LORD Almighty says, "I will refine my people like metal and put them to the test. My people have done evil--- what else can I do with them?
Their tongues are like deadly arrows; they always tell lies. Everyone speaks friendly words to their neighbors, but they are really setting a trap for them.
I said, "I will mourn for the mountains and weep for the pastures, because they have dried up, and no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard; birds and wild animals have fled and gone."
The LORD says, "I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins, a place where jackals live; the cities of Judah will become a desert, a place where no one lives."
I asked, " LORD, why is the land devastated and dry as a desert, so that no one travels through it? Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom have you explained it so that they can tell others?"
The LORD answered, "This has happened because my people have abandoned the teaching that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or done what I told them.
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have heard about, and I will send armies against them until I have completely destroyed them."
I said, "Listen to the LORD, you women, and pay attention to his words. Teach your daughters how to mourn, and your friends how to sing a funeral song.
Dead bodies are scattered everywhere, like piles of manure on the fields, like grain cut and left behind by the reapers, grain that no one gathers. This is what the LORD has told me to say."
If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me, because my love is constant, and I do what is just and right. These are the things that please me. I, the LORD, have spoken."
The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. All these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant."