Jeremiah 8–9

Chapter 8

The Sin and Treachery of Judah

¹“At that time,” declares the Lord, “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“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 gone 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 driven them,” declares the Lord of hosts.

⁴“You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord,

“Do men ^afall and not get up again?

Does one turn away and not ¹repent?

⁵“Why then has this people, Jerusalem,

^aTurned away in continual apostasy?

They ^bhold fast to deceit,

They ^crefuse to return.

⁶“I ^ahave listened and heard,

They have spoken what is not right;

^bNo man repented of his wickedness,

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 thrush

Observe the time of their ¹migration;

But ^cMy people do not know

The ordinance of the Lord.

⁸“^aHow can you say, ‘We are wise,

And the law of the Lord 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 caught;

Behold, they have ^brejected the word of the Lord,

And what kind of wisdom do they have?

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

Their fields to ¹new owners;

Because from the least even to the greatest

Everyone is ^bgreedy for gain;

From the prophet even to the priest

Everyone practices deceit.

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 blush;

Therefore they shall ^bfall among those who fall;

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

Says the Lord.

¹³“I will ^asurely snatch them away,” declares the Lord;

“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?

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

And let us perish there,

Because the Lord our God has doomed us

And given us ^cpoisoned water to drink,

For ^dwe have sinned against the Lord.

¹⁵We ^awaited for peace, but no good came;

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 ^bstallions

The whole land quakes;

For they come and ^cdevour the land and its fullness,

The city and its inhabitants.

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

Adders, for which there is ^bno charm,

And they will bite you,” declares the Lord.

¹⁸¹My ^asorrow is beyond healing,

My ^bheart is faint within me!

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

“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”

“Why have they ^bprovoked Me 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, dismay 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 ²been restored?

Chapter 9

A Lament over Zion

^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 wayfarers’ lodging place;

That I might leave my people

And go from them!

For all of them are ^badulterers,

An assembly of ^ctreacherous men.

³“They ^abend their tongue like their bow;

Lies and not truth prevail in the land;

For they ^bproceed from evil to evil,

And they ^cdo not know Me,” declares the Lord.

⁴“Let everyone ^abe on guard against his neighbor,

And ^bdo not trust any brother;

Because every ^cbrother deals ¹craftily,

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 ^adwelling is in the midst of deceit;

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

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,

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

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

⁸“Their ^atongue is a deadly 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 the Lord.

“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 dirge,

Because they are ^claid waste 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 the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? ^cWhy is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³The Lord said, “Because they have ^aforsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed 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 the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, ^aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them ^bpoisoned 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 annihilated them.”

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts,

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

And send for the ^1bwailing 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 are we ruined!

We are put to great shame,

For we have ^cleft the land,

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the Lord, O you ^awomen,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a dirge.

²¹For ^adeath has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the ^bchildren from the streets,

The young men from the town squares.

²²Speak, “Thus says the Lord,

‘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 the Lord, “^aLet not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the ^bmighty man boast of his might, let not a ^crich man boast of his riches;

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

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “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.”