Jeremiah 8:18–9:11

18 1My asorrow is beyond healing,

My bheart is faint within me!

19 Behold, 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.”

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

I bmourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

22 Is 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

1 1aOh 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!

2 1aOh 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.

7 Therefore 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.”