Jeremiah 8:4–9:6
4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
5 Why has this people dslidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
eThey hold fast to deceit,
fThey refuse to return.
6 gI listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
hNo man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.
7 “Even ithe stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But jMy people do not know the judgment of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
kAnd the law of the Lord is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
9 lThe wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
So mwhat wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore nI will give their wives to others,
And their fields to those who will inherit them;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to ocovetousness;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
11 For they have phealed the hurt of the daughter of My people 2slightly,
Saying, q‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
12 Were they rashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed,
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
In the time of their punishment
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.
13 “I will surely 3consume them,” says the Lord.
“No grapes shall be son the vine,
Nor figs on the tfig tree,
And the leaf shall fade;
And the things I have given them shall upass away from them.” ’ ”
vAssemble yourselves,
And let us enter the fortified cities,
And let us be silent there.
For the Lord our God has put us to silence
And given us wwater 4of gall to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 “We xlooked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of health, and there was trouble!
16 The snorting of His horses was heard from yDan.
The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His zstrong ones;
For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell in it.”
17 “For behold, I will send serpents among you,
Vipers which cannot be acharmed,
And they shall bite you,” says the Lord.
The Prophet Mourns for the People
18 I would comfort myself in sorrow;
My heart is faint in me.
The cry of the daughter of My people—
From ba far country:
“Is not the Lord in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”
The summer is ended,
And we are not saved!”
21 cFor the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am dmourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no ebalm in Gilead,
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?
9 Oh, athat my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness—
A lodging place for travelers;
That I might leave my people,
And go from them!
For bthey are all adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.
3 “And like their bow cthey have bent their tongues for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth.
For they proceed from devil to evil,
And they edo not know Me,” says the Lord.
4 “Everyone ftake heed to his 1neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
For every brother will utterly supplant,
And every neighbor will gwalk with slanderers.
5 Everyone will hdeceive his neighbor,
And will not speak the truth;
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.