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18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
    My heart is faint within me.
19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off:
    “Isn’t Yahweh in Zion?
    Isn’t her King in her?”

“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
    and with foreign idols?”

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

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am hurt.
    I mourn.
    Dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Oh that my head were waters,
    and my eyes a spring 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 are all adulterers,
    an assembly of treacherous men.

Jeremiah Weeps for Sinful Judah

18 My grief is beyond healing;
    my heart is broken.
19 Listen to the weeping of my people;
    it can be heard all across the land.
“Has the Lord abandoned Jerusalem?[a]” the people ask.
    “Is her King no longer there?”

“Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols
    and their worthless foreign gods?” says the Lord.

20 “The harvest is finished,
    and the summer is gone,” the people cry,
    “yet we are not saved!”

21 I hurt with the hurt of my people.
    I mourn and am overcome with grief.
22 Is there no medicine in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why is there no healing
    for the wounds of my people?

[b]If only my head were a pool of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
    for all my people who have been slaughtered.
[c]Oh, that I could go away and forget my people
    and live in a travelers’ shack in the desert.
For they are all adulterers—
    a pack of treacherous liars.

Footnotes

  1. 8:19 Hebrew Zion?
  2. 9:1 Verse 9:1 is numbered 8:23 in Hebrew text.
  3. 9:2 Verses 9:2-26 are numbered 9:1-25 in Hebrew text.