18 [a]My (A)sorrow is beyond healing,
My (B)heart is faint within me!
19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a (C)distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they (D)provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign [b](E)idols?”
20 “Harvest is past, summer is over,
And we are not saved.”
21 I am broken over the (F)brokenness of the daughter of my people.
I (G)mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no (H)balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
(I)Why then has not the [c]health of the daughter of my people [d]been restored?

Grief over Zion

[e](J)Oh, that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For those slain of the (K)daughter of my people!
[f](L)Oh that I had in the desert
A travelers’ lodging place;
So that I might leave my people
And go away from them!
For all of them are (M)adulterers,
An assembly of (N)treacherous people.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 As in LXX and ancient versions
  2. Jeremiah 8:19 Lit futilities
  3. Jeremiah 8:22 Or healing
  4. Jeremiah 8:22 Lit gone up
  5. Jeremiah 9:1 Ch 8:23 in Heb
  6. Jeremiah 9:2 Ch 9:1 in Heb

The Prophet Mourns for the People

18 My grief is beyond healing,[a]
    my heart is sick within me.
19 Hark, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images,
    and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded,
    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?
[b] O that my head were waters,
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
    for the slain of the daughter of my people!
[c] O that I had in the desert
    a wayfarers’ lodging place,
that I might leave my people
    and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
    a company of treacherous men.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 Cn: Compare Gk: Heb uncertain
  2. Jeremiah 9:1 Ch 8.23 in Heb
  3. Jeremiah 9:2 Ch 9.1 in Heb