Jeremiah 8–9

CHAPTER 8

The Faithlessness of Jerusalem

¹“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “they will ^abring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.

²“And they will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the ^ahost of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have walked after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered ^bor buried; ^cthey will be as dung on the face of the ground.

³“And ^adeath will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the ^bplaces to which I have banished them,” declares Yahweh of hosts.

⁴“You shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh,

“Do men ^afall and not get up again?

Does one turn away and not ¹turn back?

⁵“Why then has this people, Jerusalem,

^1aTurned away in continual faithlessness?

They ^bhold fast to deceit;

They ^crefuse to return.

⁶“I ^ahave given heed and heard,

They have spoken what is not right;

^bNo man regretted his evil,

Saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turned to his course,

Like a ^chorse charging into the battle.

⁷“Even the stork in the sky

^aKnows her seasons;

And the ^bturtledove and the swift and the crane

Keep the time of their ¹migration;

But ^cMy people do not know

The legal judgment of Yahweh.

⁸“^aHow can you say, ‘We are wise,

And the law of Yahweh is with us’?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes

Has made it into a lie.

⁹“The wise men are ^aput to shame;

They are dismayed and captured;

Behold, they have ^brejected the word of Yahweh,

And what kind of wisdom do they have?

¹⁰“Therefore I will ^agive their wives to others,

Their fields to ¹new possessors,

Because from the least even to the greatest

Everyone is ^bgreedy for gain;

From the prophet even to the priest

Everyone practices lying.

¹¹“They ^aheal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace.

¹²“Were they ^aashamed because of the abomination they had done?

They certainly were not ashamed,

And they did not know how to feel dishonor;

Therefore they shall ^bfall among those who fall;

At the ^ctime of their ¹punishment they shall be brought down,”

Says Yahweh.

¹³“I will ^asurely gather them up,” declares Yahweh;

“There will be ^bno grapes on the vine

And ^cno figs on the fig tree,

And the leaf will wither;

And what I have given them will pass away.” ’ ”

¹⁴Why are we sitting still?

^aGather yourselves, and let us ^bgo into the fortified cities

And let us be silent there

Because Yahweh our God has silenced us

And given us ^1cpoisoned water to drink,

For ^dwe have sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵We ^awaited for peace, but there was no good;

For a time of healing, but behold, terror!

¹⁶From ^aDan is heard the snorting of his horses;

At the sound of the neighing of his ^bvaliant steeds

The whole land quakes;

And they come and ^cdevour the land as well as its fullness,

The city and its inhabitants.

¹⁷“For behold, I am ^asending serpents against you,

Vipers, for which there is ^bno charm,

And they will bite you,” declares Yahweh.

Sorrow over Zion

¹⁸¹My ^asorrow is beyond healing;

My ^bheart is faint within me!

¹⁹Behold, the sound! The cry of the daughter of my people from a ^adistant land:

“Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”

“Why have they ^bprovoked Me to anger with their graven images, with foreign ^1cidols?”

²⁰“Harvest is past, summer is ended,

And we are not saved.”

²¹For the ^abrokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;

I ^bmourn, desolation has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no ^abalm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

^bWhy then has not the ¹health of the daughter of my people gone up?

CHAPTER 9

^11aOh that my head were waters

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the ^bdaughter of my people!

^21aOh that I had in the desert

A travelers’ lodging place,

That I might leave my people

And go from them!

For all of them are ^badulterers,

A solemn assembly of ^ctreacherous men.

³“They ^abend their tongue like their bow;

Lies and unfaithfulness prevail in the land,

For they ^bgo onward from evil to evil,

And they ^cdo not know Me,” declares Yahweh.

⁴“Let everyone ^abeware of his neighbor,

And ^bdo not trust any brother,

Because every ^cbrother ¹surely supplants,

And every neighbor ^dgoes about as a slanderer.

⁵“Everyone ^adeceives his neighbor

And does not speak the truth;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They ^bweary themselves committing iniquity.

⁶“Your ^ahabitation is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they ^brefuse to know Me,” declares Yahweh.

⁷Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them and ^atest them;

For ^bwhat else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

⁸“Their ^atongue is a slaughtering arrow;

It speaks deceit;

With his mouth one ^bspeaks peace to his neighbor,

But inwardly he ^csets an ambush for him.

⁹“^aShall I not punish them for these things?” declares Yahweh.

“On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?

¹⁰“For the ^amountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,

And for the pastures of the ^bwilderness a funeral lamentation,

Because they are ^cturned into ruin so that no one passes through,

And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;

Both the ^dbirds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem a ^aheap of ruins,

A haunt of ^bjackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a ^cdesolation, without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the ^awise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom ^bthe mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? ^cWhy has the land perished, turned into ruin like a desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³Yahweh said, “Because they have ^aforsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice nor walked according to it,

¹⁴but have ^awalked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the ^bBaals, as their ^cfathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, ^aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them ^1bpoisoned water to drink.

¹⁶“I will ^ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the ^bsword after them until I have consumed them.”

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“Carefully consider and call for the ^amourning women, that they may come;

And send for the ^1bskillful women, that they may come!

¹⁸“Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,

That our ^aeyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹“For a voice of ^awailing is heard from Zion,

‘^bHow we are destroyed!

We are put to great shame,

For we have ^cleft the land

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

²⁰Indeed, hear the word of Yahweh, O you ^awomen,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a funeral lamentation.

²¹For ^adeath has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the ^binfants from the streets,

The choice men from the open squares.

²²Speak, “Thus declares Yahweh,

‘The corpses of men will fall ^alike dung on the open field

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’”

²³Thus says Yahweh, “^aLet not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the ^bmighty man boast in his might; let not a ^crich man boast in his riches,

²⁴but let him who boasts ^aboast in this, that he ¹understands and knows Me, that I am Yahweh who ^bshows lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I ^cdelight in these things,” declares Yahweh.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet ^auncircumcised—

²⁶Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and ^aall those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^buncircumcised of heart.”