Jeremiah 8–9

8“At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring 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, out of their graves. ²They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and ^awhich they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered ^bnor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. ³Then ^cdeath shall be chosen rather than life by all the ¹residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.

The Peril of False Teaching

⁴“Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“Will they fall and not rise?

Will one turn away and not return?

⁵Why has this people ^dslidden back,

Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?

^eThey hold fast to deceit,

^fThey refuse to return.

^6gI 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.

^9lThe wise men are ashamed,

They are dismayed and taken.

Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;

So ^mwhat wisdom do they have?

¹⁰Therefore 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.

¹¹For they have ^phealed the hurt of the daughter of My people ²slightly,

Saying, ^q‘Peace, peace!’

When there is no peace.

¹²Were 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.” ’ ”

¹⁴“Why do we sit still?

^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!

¹⁶The 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

¹⁸I would comfort myself in sorrow;

My heart is faint in me.

¹⁹Listen! The voice,

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?”

²⁰“The harvest is past,

The summer is ended,

And we are not saved!”

^21cFor the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.

I am ^dmourning;

Astonishment has taken hold of me.

²²Is 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?

9Oh, ^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!

²Oh, 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.

⁵Everyone will ^hdeceive his neighbor,

And will not speak the truth;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

⁶Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the Lord.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, ⁱI will refine them and ²try them;

^jFor how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

⁸Their tongue is an arrow shot out;

It speaks ^kdeceit;

One speaks ^lpeaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,

But ³in his heart he ⁴lies in wait.

^9mShall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.

“Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

And ⁿfor the ⁵dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,

Because they are burned up,

So that no one can pass through;

Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle.

^oBoth the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled;

They are gone.

¹¹“I will make Jerusalem ^pa heap of ruins, ^qa den of jackals.

I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

^12rWho is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

¹³And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have ^snot obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, ¹⁴but they have ^twalked according to the ⁶dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, ^uwhich their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will ^vfeed them, this people, ^wwith wormwood, and give them ⁷water of gall to drink. ¹⁶I will ^xscatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. ^yAnd I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

The People Mourn in Judgment

¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Consider and call for ^zthe mourning women,

That they may come;

And send for skillful wailing women,

That they may come.

¹⁸Let them make haste

And take up a wailing for us,

That ^aour eyes may run with tears,

And our eyelids gush with water.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:

‘How we are plundered!

We are greatly ashamed,

Because we have forsaken the land,

Because we have been cast out of ^bour dwellings.’ ”

²⁰Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.

²¹For death has come through our windows,

Has entered our palaces,

To kill off ^cthe children—⁸no longer to be outside!

And the young men—⁹no longer on the streets!

²²Speak, “Thus says the Lord:

‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall ^das refuse on the open field,

Like cuttings after the harvester,

And no one shall gather them.’ ”

²³Thus says the Lord:

^e“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

Let not the mighty man glory in his ^fmight,

Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

²⁴But ^glet him who glories glory in this,

That he understands and knows Me,

That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, ¹judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

^hFor in these I delight,” says the Lord.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that ⁱI will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised—²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the ^jfarthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^kuncircumcised in the heart.”