Vulgate: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 9

This is a passage from the Book of Jeremiah (chapter 9) in the Latin Vulgate Bible, belonging to the prophetic literature tradition of the Hebrew scriptures. The text opens with an anguished lament — the prophet wishes for inexhaustible tears to mourn his people — and quickly pivots to a sustained indictment of social corruption: neighbors cannot trust one another, brothers deceive, and the tongue has become an instrument of lies and hidden ambushes. The central argument is that this moral collapse stems from Israel's abandonment of God's law and their worship of the Baals inherited from their ancestors, a betrayal that drives the coming catastrophe. God announces he will refine the people like metal, reduce Jerusalem to rubble, scatter them among foreign nations with the sword, and lay the land so utterly waste that no man or bird remains. The passage instructs professional mourning women to be summoned and teaches daughters lamentation, invoking the haunting image of Death climbing through windows to take children from the streets. The text closes with a distinctive theological claim that cuts against conventional ancient values: true glory belongs not to the wise, the strong, or the wealthy, but only to those who know and understand God — who acts with mercy, justice, and righteousness. A final oracle extends judgment broadly across neighboring nations while pointedly accusing the house of Israel of being "uncircumcised in heart," making moral and spiritual integrity the text's ultimate standard.

Vulgate: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 9

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