Jeremiah 8–9

8TH CHAPTER

¹The Lord declares, “At that time the bones of the kings and the leaders of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the others who lived in Jerusalem will be taken out of their graves. ²They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky. These are the things that they had loved, served, gone after, sought, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered or buried, but they will become manure on the ground. 

³“Then the few who remain from these wicked people will want to die rather than live where I will scatter them,” declares the Lord of Armies. 

The Lord’s Judgment on Judah’s False Religion

⁴“Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: 

When someone falls, he gets back up. 

When someone turns away from me, he returns. 

⁵The people of Jerusalem turned away from me without ever returning. 

They still cling to deceit. 

They refuse to return. 

⁶I have paid attention and listened, 

but they weren’t honest. 

They don’t turn away from their wickedness and ask, 

“What have we done?” 

They go their own ways like horses charging into battle. 

⁷Even storks know when it’s time to return. 

Mourning doves, swallows, and cranes know 

when it’s time to migrate. 

But my people don’t know 

that I, the Lord, am urging them to return. 

⁸“ ‘How can you say that you are wise 

and that you have the Lord’s teachings? 

The scribes have used their pens to turn these teachings into lies. 

⁹Wise people are put to shame, confused, and trapped. 

They have rejected the Lord’s word. 

They don’t really have any wisdom. 

¹⁰That is why I will give their wives to other men 

and their fields to new owners. 

All of them, from the least important to the most important, 

are eager to make money dishonestly. 

All of them, from prophets to priests, act deceitfully. 

¹¹They treat my dear people’s wounds 

as though they were not serious, saying, 

“Everything is alright! Everything is alright!” 

But it’s not alright. 

¹²Are they ashamed that they do disgusting things? 

No, they’re not ashamed. 

They don’t even know how to blush. 

So they will die with those who die. 

They will be brought down when I punish them,’ ” says the Lord. 

¹³“ ‘I would have gathered their harvest,’ ” declares the Lord, 

“ ‘but there are no grapes on the vine. 

There are no figs on the tree, 

and the leaves have dried up. 

What I have given them will be taken away.’ ” 

¹⁴Why are we just sitting here? Let’s get up! 

Let’s go into the fortified cities and die there. 

The Lord our God has condemned us to die. 

He has given us poison to drink 

because we have sinned against the Lord. 

¹⁵We hoped for peace, but nothing good has happened. 

We hoped for a time of healing, but there’s only terror. 

¹⁶The snorting of horses can be heard from Dan. 

The neighing of stallions makes the whole land tremble. 

They are coming to devour the land and everything in it, 

the city and its people. 

¹⁷“I am going to send snakes among you, 

vipers that can’t be charmed. 

They will bite you,” declares the Lord. 

Jeremiah’s Grief over His People’s Punishment

¹⁸Sorrow has overwhelmed me. 

I am sick at heart! 

¹⁹The cry from my dear people comes from a distant land: 

“Isn’t the Lord in Zion? 

Isn’t Zion’s king still there?” 

They make me furious with their idols, with their foreign gods. 

²⁰The harvest is past, 

the summer has ended, 

and we haven’t been saved. 

²¹I am crushed because my dear people have been crushed. 

I mourn; terror grips me. 

²²Isn’t there medicine in Gilead? 

Aren’t there doctors there? 

Then why hasn’t the health of my dear people been restored? 

9TH CHAPTER^a

¹“I wish that my head were ⸤filled with⸥ water 

and my eyes were a fountain of tears 

so that I could cry day and night 

for my dear people who have been killed. 

²I wish I had a place to stay in the desert. 

I would abandon my people and go away from them. 

They are all adulterers, 

a mob of traitors. 

³They use their tongues like bows that shoot arrows. 

Lies and dishonesty rule the land.^b

They go from one evil thing to another, 

and they don’t know me,” declares the Lord. 

⁴“Beware of your neighbors. 

Don’t trust your relatives. 

Every relative cheats. 

Every neighbor goes around slandering. 

⁵Everyone cheats his neighbor. 

No one speaks the truth. 

My people train their tongues to speak lies. 

They wear themselves out doing wrong. 

⁶Oppression follows oppression.^c

Deceit follows deceit. 

They refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the Lord. 

⁷This is what the Lord of Armies says: 

I will now refine them with fire and test them. 

What else can I do for my dear people? 

⁸Their tongues are like deadly arrows. 

They speak deceitfully. 

People speak politely to their neighbors, 

but they think of ways to set traps for them. 

⁹I will punish them for these things, declares the Lord. 

I will punish this nation. 

I still won’t be satisfied. 

¹⁰I will cry and weep for the mountains. 

I will sing a funeral song for the pastures in the wilderness. 

They are destroyed so that no one can travel through them. 

No one can hear the sound of cattle. 

Birds and cattle have fled. 

They are gone. 

¹¹I will turn Jerusalem into a pile of rubble, a home for jackals. 

I will destroy the cities of Judah so that no one can live there. 

¹²No one is wise enough to understand this. 

To whom has the Lord revealed this 

so that they can explain it? 

The land dies; it has been ruined like the desert 

so that no one can travel through it. 

¹³The Lord answered, 

“They’ve abandoned my teachings that I placed in front of them. 

They didn’t obey me, and they didn’t follow them. 

¹⁴They followed their own stubborn ways and other gods—the Baals, 

as their ancestors taught them.” 

¹⁵This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: 

I am going to feed these people bitterness 

and give them poison to drink. 

¹⁶I will scatter them among nations 

that they and their ancestors haven’t heard of. 

I will send armies after them until I’ve wiped them out. 

¹⁷This is what the Lord of Armies says: 

Consider this: 

Call for the women who cry at funerals. 

Send for those who are the most skilled. 

¹⁸They should come quickly and cry for us. 

Our eyes will run with tears. 

Our eyelids will flow with water. 

¹⁹The sound of crying is heard from Zion. 

“We’re ruined! We’re very ashamed. 

We must leave our land because our homes have been torn down.” 

²⁰Listen to the Lord’s word, you women, 

and open your ears to hear his words. 

Teach your daughters how to cry. 

Teach your neighbors funeral songs. 

²¹Death has come through our windows and entered our palaces. 

Death has cut down the children in the streets 

and the young men in the marketplaces. 

²²This is what the Lord says: 

Dead bodies will fall like manure on the field. 

They will be like grain that has been cut but not gathered. 

The Lord Is the Only True God

²³This is what the Lord says: 

Don’t let wise people brag about their wisdom. 

Don’t let strong people brag about their strength. 

Don’t let rich people brag about their riches. 

²⁴If they want to brag, they should brag that they understand and know me. 

They should brag that I, the Lord, act out of love, righteousness, 

and justice on the earth. 

This kind of bragging pleases me, declares the Lord. 

²⁵“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, 

“when I will punish all who are circumcised. 

²⁶I will punish Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. 

I will punish all who shave the hair on their foreheads 

or live in the desert. 

Even though these nations are circumcised, 

all Israel has uncircumcised hearts.”