Jeremiah 8:18–9:2

¹⁸You who are my Comforter^b in sorrow,

my heart is faint^v within me.

¹⁹Listen to the cry of my people

from a land far away:^w

“Is the Lord not in Zion?

Is her King^x no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused^y my anger with their images,

with their worthless^z foreign idols?”^a

²⁰“The harvest is past,

the summer has ended,

and we are not saved.”

²¹Since my people are crushed,^b I am crushed;

I mourn,^c and horror grips me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead?^d

Is there no physician^e there?

Why then is there no healing^f

for the wound of my people?

9^aOh, that my head were a spring of water

and my eyes a fountain of tears!^g

I would weep^h day and night

for the slain of my people.ⁱ

²Oh, that I had in the desert^j

a lodging place for travelers,

so that I might leave my people

and go away from them;

for they are all adulterers,^k

a crowd of unfaithful^l people.