6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit;through deceit they refuse to know Me,says the Lord.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts: Now, I will refine them and assay them;for what else shall I dofor the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;it speaks deceit.One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,but in his heart he lies in wait.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?says the Lord.Shall not My soul be avengedon such a nation as this?
10 For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation,because they are burned up so that no one can pass through them;nor can men hear the lowing of the cattle.Both the fowl of the heavens and the beast have fled;they are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruinsand a den of jackals;and I will make the cities of Judah desolate,without an inhabitant.
12 Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?