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Jeremiah’s Sadness

18 God, you are my comfort when I am very sad
    and when I am afraid.
19 Listen to the sound of my people.
    They cry from a faraway land:
    “Isn’t the Lord still in Jerusalem?
    Isn’t Jerusalem’s king still there?”

But God says, “Why did the people make me angry by worshiping idols,
    useless foreign idols?”

20 And the people say, “Harvest time is over;
    summer has ended,
    and we have not been saved.”

21 Because my people are crushed, I am crushed.
    I cry loudly and am afraid for them.
22 Isn’t there balm in the land of Gilead?
    Isn’t there a doctor there?
So why aren’t the hurts of my people healed?
I wish my head were like a spring of water
    and my eyes like a fountain of tears!
Then I could cry day and night
    for my people who have been killed.
I wish I had a place in the desert—
    a house where travelers spend the night—
so I could leave my people.
    I could go away from them,
because they are all unfaithful to God;
    they are all turning against him.

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.

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

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

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Oh that my head were waters, and mine 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 wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.