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18 “My comfort is gone from me,
    sorrow is on me,
    my heart is sick.
19 Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people
    from a distant land,
‘Is Yahweh not in Zion?
    Is her king not in her?’
Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
    with idols of a foreign land?”
20 The harvest has passed,
    the summer has come to an end,
and we have not received help.[a]

Yahweh’s Lament

21 “Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down,
    I mourn, horror has seized me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no healer there?
Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

[b] Oh that my head were waters,[c]
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night,
    for the slain of the daughter of my people.
Oh that I had[d] in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers,
    that I may leave my people and go from them,
for all of them are adulterers,
    a band of traitors.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:20 Or “been saved”
  2. Jeremiah 9:1 Jeremiah 9:1–26 in the English Bible is 8:23–9:25 in the Hebrew Bible
  3. Jeremiah 9:1 Literally “Who he gives my head waters”
  4. Jeremiah 9:2 Literally “Who he gives me”

18 You who are my Comforter[a] in sorrow,
    my heart is faint(A) within me.
19 Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:(B)
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King(C) no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused(D) my anger with their images,
    with their worthless(E) foreign idols?”(F)

20 “The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
    and we are not saved.”

21 Since my people are crushed,(G) I am crushed;
    I mourn,(H) and horror grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?(I)
    Is there no physician(J) there?
Why then is there no healing(K)
    for the wound of my people?

[b]Oh, that my head were a spring of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears!(L)
I would weep(M) day and night
    for the slain of my people.(N)
Oh, that I had in the desert(O)
    a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
    and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,(P)
    a crowd of unfaithful(Q) people.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  2. Jeremiah 9:1 In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-26 is numbered 9:1-25.