Jeremiah 8:13–22

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?