Jeremiah 8:18–9:2

Lament over Judah

¹⁸My joy has flown away;

grief has settled on me.

My heart is sick. ^q

¹⁹Listen—the cry of my dear ^rpeople

from a far away land,

“Is the Lord no longer in Zion, ^s

her King not within her?”

Why have they provoked me to anger

with their carved images,

with their worthless foreign idols? ^t

²⁰Harvest has passed, summer has ended,

but we have not been saved.

²¹I am broken by the brokenness

of my dear ^upeople. ^v

I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? ^w

Is there no physician there?

So why has the healing of my dear ^xpeople

not come about?

9^yIf my head were a spring of water,

my eyes a fountain of tears,

I would weep day and night ^z

over the slain of my dear ^apeople.

^2bIf only I had a traveler’s lodging place

in the wilderness, ^c

I would abandon my people

and depart from them,

for they are all adulterers, ^d

a solemn assembly of treacherous people. ^e