Jeremiah 8:13–22

¹³“I will take away their harvest,”^k declares^l Yahweh.

“There are no grapes on the vine,

and there are no figs on the fig tree,

and the leaves wither,

and what I gave to them passed over them.” ’ ”

The Nation Longs for Yahweh’s Help

¹⁴Why are we sitting?

Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities,

and let us perish there,

for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish,

and has provided drink for us, water of poison,

because we have sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵We hope for peace,

but there is no good,

for a time of healing,

but there is terror.

¹⁶“From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses,

from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes,

for they come and devour the land,

and that which fills the city,

and those who live in it.

¹⁷For look, I am letting loose among you snakes,

adders for which there is no incantation,

and they will bite you,” declares^m Yahweh.

¹⁸“My comfort is gone from me,

sorrow is on me,

my heart is sick.

¹⁹Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people

from a distant land,

‘Is Yahweh not in Zion?

Is her king not in her?’

Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

with idols of a foreign land?”

²⁰The harvest has passed,

the summer has come to an end,

and we have not received help.ⁿ

Yahweh’s Lament

²¹“Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down,

I mourn, horror has seized me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no healer there?

Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?