Jeremiah 8:18–9:2

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