Jeremiah 8–9

DEATH OVER LIFE

8“At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves.^{n 2}They will be exposed^o to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky,^p which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the soil’s surface.^{q 3}Death will be chosen over life^r by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.”^s This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

⁴“You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says:

Do people fall and not get up again?^t

If they turn away, do they not return?

⁵Why have these people turned away?

Why is Jerusalem always turning away?

They take hold of deceit;^u

they refuse to return.^v

⁶I have paid careful attention.

They do not speak what is right.

No one regrets his evil,

asking, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone has stayed his course

like a horse rushing into battle.^w

⁷Even storks in the sky

know their seasons.

Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes^D

are aware of their migration,

but my people do not know

the requirements of the Lord.^x

PUNISHMENT FOR JUDAH’S LEADERS

⁸“How can you claim, ‘We are wise;

the law of the Lord is with us’?

In fact, the lying pen of scribes^y

has produced falsehood.

⁹The wise will be put to shame;

they will be dismayed and snared.

They have rejected the word of the Lord,^z

so what wisdom do they really have?

¹⁰Therefore, I will give^aa their wives to other men,

their fields to new occupants,

for from the least to the greatest,^ab

everyone is making profit dishonestly.

From prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

¹¹They have treated the brokenness

of my dear people superficially,

claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?

They weren’t at all ashamed.

They can no longer feel humiliation.

Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.

When I punish them, they will collapse,”^ac

says the Lord.

¹³“I will gather them and bring them to an end.”^Ba

This is the Lord’s declaration.

“There will be no grapes on the vine,

no figs on the fig tree,

and even the leaf will wither.

Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.”

GOD’S PEOPLE UNREPENTANT

¹⁴Why are we just sitting here?

Gather together; let’s enter the fortified cities

and perish there,^C

for the Lord our God has destroyed^D us.

He has given us poisoned water to drink,^b

because we have sinned against the Lord.^c

¹⁵We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good;

for a time of healing, but there was only terror.^d

¹⁶From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard.

At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,^e

the whole land quakes.

They come to devour the land and everything in it,

the city and all its residents.

¹⁷Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you,

poisonous vipers^f that cannot be charmed.^g

They will bite you.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

LAMENT OVER JUDAH

¹⁸My joy has flown away;

grief has settled on me.

My heart is sick.^h

¹⁹Listen—the cry of my dear people

from a faraway land,

“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,ⁱ

her King not within her?”

Why have they angered me

with their carved images,

with their worthless foreign idols?^j

²⁰Harvest has passed, summer has ended,

but we have not been saved.

²¹I am broken by the brokenness

of my dear people.^k

I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead?^l

Is there no physician there?

So why has the healing of my dear people

not come about?

9If my head were a flowing spring,

my eyes a fountain of tears,

I would weep day and night^m

over the slain of my dear^A people.

²If only I had a traveler’s lodging place

in the wilderness,ⁿ

I would abandon my people

and depart from them,

for they are all adulterers,^o

a solemn assembly of treacherous people.^p

³They bent their tongues like their bows;

lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,

for they proceed from one evil to another,

and they do not take me into account.^q

This is the Lord’s declaration.

IMMINENT RUIN AND EXILE

⁴Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.

Don’t trust any brother,

for every brother will certainly deceive,^r

and every friend spread slander.^s

⁵Each one betrays his friend;^t

no one tells the truth.

They have taught their tongues to speak lies;

they wear themselves out doing wrong.

⁶You live in a world of deception.^Bu

In their deception they refuse to know me.^v

This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁷Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies says:

I am about to refine them and test them,^w

for what else can I do

because of my dear^C people?^D

⁸Their tongues are deadly arrows—

they speak deception.^a

With his mouth

one speaks peaceably with his friend,

but inwardly he sets up an ambush.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things?

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Should I not avenge myself^b

on such a nation as this?

¹⁰I will raise weeping and a lament

over the mountains,

a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,

for they have been so scorched

that no one passes through.

The sound of cattle is no longer heard.

From the birds of the sky to the animals,^c

everything has fled—they have gone away.

¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,^d

a jackals’ den.^e

I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

an uninhabited place.

¹²Who is the person wise enough to understand this?^f Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

¹³The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction,^g which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it. ¹⁴Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts^h and followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.”^{i 15}Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood^j and give them poisonous water to drink.^{k 16}I will scatter them among the nations^l that they and their ancestors have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

MOURNING OVER JUDAH

¹⁷This is what the Lord of Armies says:

Consider, and summon the women who mourn;^m

send for the skillful women.

¹⁸Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us

so that our eyes may overflow with tears,

our eyelids be soaked with weeping.

¹⁹For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:

How devastated we are.

We are greatly ashamed,ⁿ

for we have abandoned the land;

our dwellings have been torn down.

²⁰Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.

Pay attention to^A the words from his mouth.

Teach your daughters a lament

and one another a dirge,

²¹for Death^o has climbed through our windows;

it has entered our fortresses,

cutting off children from the streets,

young men from the squares.

²²“Speak as follows: ‘This is what the Lord declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field,^p like newly cut grain^q after the reaper with no one to gather it.

BOAST IN THE LORD

²³“ ‘This is what the Lord says:

The wise person should not boast in his wisdom;

the strong should not boast in his strength;

the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.

²⁴But the one who boasts should boast in this:

that he understands and knows me^r—

that I am the Lord, showing faithful love,

justice, and righteousness on the earth,

for I delight in these things.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

²⁵“ ‘Look, the days are coming—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:^{s 26}Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples.^A All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’ ”^t