Jeremiah 8:18-9:2

International Children’s Bible

Jeremiah’s Sadness

¹⁸God, you are my comfort when I am very sad.
    You are my comfort when I’m afraid.
¹⁹Listen to my people!
    They are crying for help from a faraway land.
    They say, “Is the Lord still in Jerusalem?
    Is Jerusalem’s king still there?”

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

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

²¹My people are crushed. So I am crushed.
I cry loudly, and I am afraid for them.
²²Surely there is a balm in the land of Gilead.
Surely there is a doctor there.
So why aren’t the hurts of my people healed?

9 I wish my head were like a spring of water.
    And I wish my eyes were a fountain of tears!
Then I could cry day and night
    for my people who have been killed.
²I wish I had a place in the desert—
    a house where travelers spend the night.
Then I could leave my people.
    I could go away from them.
This is because they are all unfaithful to God.
    They are all turning against him.