Jeremiah 9-10 - Love, Justice and Righteousness

From today's Bible reading:

Jeremiah 9:

Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the desert
a travelers' lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!

For they are all adulterers,
a company of treacherous men.

They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me,

declares the LORD.

Everyone deceives his neighbor,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.

Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD,
and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

(Romans 2: Circumcision is that of the heart.)

Jeremiah 10:

Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.

Thus says the LORD:

Learn not the way of the nations,
nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
because the nations are dismayed at them,
for the customs of the peoples are vanity.

Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.

There is none like you, O LORD;
you are great, and your name is great in might.

Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you.

The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Correct me, O LORD, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.