Haftarah for Tisha B'Av

(13) I will make an end of them^-a

—declares the LORD:

No grapes left on the vine,

No figs on the fig tree,

The leaves all withered;

Whatever I have given them is gone.^-b

(14) Why are we sitting by?

Let us gather into the fortified cities

And meet our doom there.

For the LORD our God has doomed us,

He has made us drink a bitter draft,

Because we sinned against the LORD.

(15) We hoped for good fortune, but no

happiness came;

For a time of relief—instead there is terror!

(16) The snorting of their horses was heard from Dan;

At the loud neighing of their steeds

The whole land quaked.

They came and devoured the land and what was in it,

The towns and those who dwelt in them.

(17) Lo, I will send serpents against you,

Adders that cannot be charmed,

And they shall bite you

—declares the LORD.

(18) When in grief I would seek comfort,^-b

My heart is sick within me.

(19) “Is not the LORD in Zion?

Is not her King within her?

Why then did they anger Me with their images,

With alien futilities?”

Hark! The outcry of my poor people

From the land far and wide: (20) “Harvest is past,

Summer is gone,

But we have not been saved.” (21) Because my people is shattered I am shattered;

I am dejected, seized by desolation.

(22) Is there no balm in Gilead?

Can no physician be found?

Why has healing not yet

Come to my poor people?

(23) Oh, that my head were water,

My eyes a fount of tears!

Then would I weep day and night

For the slain of my poor people.

(1) Oh, to be in the desert,

At an encampment for wayfarers!

Oh, to leave my people,

To go away from them—

For they are all adulterers,

A band of rogues.

(2) They bend their tongues like bows;

They are valorous in the land

For treachery, not for honesty;

They advance from evil to evil.

And they do not heed Me

—declares the LORD.

(3) Beware, every man of his friend!

Trust not even a brother!

For every brother takes advantage,

Every friend is base in his dealings.^-a

(4) One man cheats the other,

They will not speak truth;

They have trained their tongues to speak falsely;

They wear themselves out working iniquity.

(5) You dwell in the midst of deceit.

In their deceit,^-b they refuse to heed Me

—declares the LORD.

(6) Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts:

Lo, I shall smelt and assay them—

For what else can I do because of My poor people?^-b

(7) Their tongue is a sharpened arrow,

They use their mouths to deceive.

One speaks to his fellow in friendship,

But lays an ambush for him in his heart.

(8) Shall I not punish them for such deeds?

—says the LORD—

Shall I not bring retribution

On such a nation as this?

(9) For the mountains I take up weeping and wailing,

For the pastures in the wilderness, a dirge.

They are laid waste; no man passes through,

And no sound of cattle is heard.

Birds of the sky and beasts as well

Have fled and are gone.

(10) I will turn Jerusalem into rubble,

Into dens for jackals;

And I will make the towns of Judah

A desolation without inhabitants.

(11) What man is so wise

That he understands this?

To whom has the LORD’s mouth spoken,

So that he can explain it:

Why is the land in ruins,

Laid waste like a wilderness,

With none passing through?

(12) The LORD replied: Because they forsook the Teaching I had set before them. They did not obey Me and they did not follow it, (13) but followed their own willful heart and followed the Baalim, as their fathers had taught them.

(14) Assuredly, thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to feed that people wormwood and make them drink a bitter draft. (15) I will scatter them among nations which they and their fathers never knew; and I will dispatch the sword after them until I have consumed them.

(16) Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Listen! Summon the dirge-singers, let them come; Send for the skilled women, let them come. (17) Let them quickly start a wailing for us, That our eyes may run with tears, Our pupils flow with water.

(18) For the sound of wailing

Is heard from Zion:

How we are despoiled!

How greatly we are shamed!

Ah, we must leave our land,

Abandon our dwellings!

(19) Hear, O women, the word of the LORD,

Let your ears receive the word of His mouth,

And teach your daughters wailing, And one another lamentation. (20) For death has climbed through our windows,

Has entered our fortresses,

To cut off babes from the streets,

Young men from the squares.

(21) Speak thus—says the LORD:

The carcasses of men shall lie

Like dung upon the fields,

Like sheaves behind the reaper,

With none to pick them up.

(22) Thus said the LORD:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom;

Let not the strong man glory in his strength;

Let not the rich man glory in his riches.

(23) But only in this should one glory:

In his earnest devotion to Me.

For I the LORD act with kindness,

Justice, and equity in the world;

For in these I delight

—declares the LORD.