Jeremiah 8:13–22

¹³When I would gather them, declares the Lord,

there are ^qno grapes on the vine,

^rnor figs on the fig tree;

^seven the leaves are withered,

and what I gave them has passed away from them.”³

¹⁴Why do we sit still?

^tGather together; ^tlet us go into the fortified cities

and perish there,

for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish

and has ^ugiven us ^vpoisoned water to drink,

because we have sinned against the Lord.

^15wWe looked for peace, but no good came;

for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

^16x“The snorting of their horses is heard ^yfrom Dan;

at the sound of the neighing ^zof their stallions

^athe whole land quakes.

They come ^band devour the land and all that fills it,

the city and those who dwell in it.

¹⁷For behold, I am sending among you ^cserpents,

adders ^dthat cannot be charmed,

^eand they shall bite you,”

declares the Lord.

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?