Jeremiah 8:18-9:16

English Standard Version

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;^[a]
    ^(A)my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from ^(B)the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    ^(C)Is her King not in her?”
^(D)“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 ^(E)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    ^(F)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

²²Is there no ^(G)balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?
9 ^[b] ^(H)Oh that my head were waters,
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
    for the slain of ^(I)the daughter of my people!
²^[c] 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 ^(J)adulterers,
    a company of ^(K)treacherous men.
³^(L)They bend their tongue like a bow;
    falsehood and not truth has grown strong^[d] in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
    ^(M)and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

⁴^(N)Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
    and put no trust in any brother,
for every ^(O)brother is a deceiver,
    and every neighbor ^(P)goes about as a slanderer.
⁵Everyone deceives his neighbor,
    and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
    they weary themselves committing iniquity.
⁶Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
    ^(Q)they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, ^(R)I will refine them and ^(S)test them,
    for what else can I do, ^(T)because of my people?
⁸^(U)Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
    ^(V)it speaks deceitfully;
with his mouth ^(W)each speaks peace to his neighbor,
    but in his heart ^(X)he plans an ambush for him.
⁹^(Y)Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

¹⁰“I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
    and a lamentation for ^(Z)the pastures of the wilderness,
^(AA)because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
    and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
^(AB)both the birds of the air and the beasts
    have fled and are gone.
¹¹^(AC)I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
    ^(AD)a lair of jackals,
^(AE)and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
    without inhabitant.”

¹²^(AF)Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined ^(AG)and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³And the Lord says: ^(AH)“Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, ¹⁴but ^(AI)have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(AJ)Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them ^(AK)poisonous water to drink. ¹⁶^(AL)I will scatter them among the nations ^(AM)whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will ^(AN)send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”