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

18 No healing,
    only grief;
        my heart is broken.[a]
19 Listen to the weeping of my people
        all across the land:
    “Isn’t the Lord in Zion?
        Is her king no longer there?”
Why then did they anger me with their images,
    with pointless foreign gods?
20 “The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
        yet we aren’t saved.”
21 Because my people are crushed,
    I am crushed;
    darkness and despair overwhelm me.

What to do with God’s people

22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then have my people
    not been restored to health?

[b] If only my head were a spring of water,
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
    for the wounds of my people.
[c] If only I could flee for shelter in the desert,
    to leave my people
        and forget them—
    for they are all adulterers,
        a bunch of crooks.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 Heb uncertain
  2. Jeremiah 9:1 8:23 in Heb
  3. Jeremiah 9:2 9:1 in Heb