Jeremiah 8:18–9:2

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;⁴

^fmy heart is sick within me.

¹⁹Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people

from ^gthe length and breadth of the land:

“Is the Lord not in Zion?

^hIs her King not in her?”

ⁱ“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images

and with their foreign idols?”

²⁰“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

and we are not saved.”

²¹For the wound of ^jthe daughter of my people is my heart wounded;

^kI mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

²²Is there no ^lbalm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?

9^{1 m}Oh that my head were waters,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of ^jthe daughter of my people!

²² Oh that I had in the desert

a travelers’ lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all ⁿadulterers,

a company of ^otreacherous men.