Jeremiah 8:11-22

English Standard Version

¹¹They have healed ^(A)the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
¹²Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, ^(B)they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
^(C)Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
¹³When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are ^(D)no grapes on the vine,
    ^(E)nor figs on the fig tree;
^(F)even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”^[a]

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

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

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;^[b]
    ^(T)my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from ^(U)the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    ^(V)Is her King not in her?”
^(W)“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 ^(X)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    ^(Y)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.