Jeremiah 8:13–22

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?