Jeremiah 8:13–22

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?