Jeremiah 8:13–22

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?