Jeremiah 8:13-22

English Standard Version

¹³When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are ^(A)no grapes on the vine,
    ^(B)nor figs on the fig tree;
^(C)even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”^[a]

¹⁴Why do we sit still?
^(D)Gather together; ^(E)let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has ^(F)given us ^(G)poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵^(H)We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

¹⁶^(I)“The snorting of their horses is heard ^(J)from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing ^(K)of their stallions
    ^(L)the whole land quakes.
They come ^(M)and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷For behold, I am sending among you ^(N)serpents,
    adders ^(O)that cannot be charmed,
    ^(P)and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;^[b]
    ^(Q)my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from ^(R)the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    ^(S)Is her King not in her?”
^(T)“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?”
²⁰“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
²¹For the wound of ^(U)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    ^(V)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.