Jeremiah 8:13–22

¹³I will surely gather them,^g says the Lord;

there are no grapes on the vine

nor figs on the fig tree;

even the leaves are withered,

and what I gave them has passed away from them.^h*

¹⁴Why do we sit still?

Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities

and perish there,

for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish

and has given us poisoned water to drink

because we have sinned against the Lord.^*

¹⁵We look for peace but find no good,

for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.^*

¹⁶The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;

at the sound of the neighing of their stallions

the whole land quakes.

They come and devour the land and all that fills it,

the city and those who live in it.^*

¹⁷See, I am letting snakes loose among you,

adders that cannot be charmed,

and they shall bite you,

says the Lord.^*

The Prophet Mourns for the People

¹⁸My joy is gone; grief is upon me;

my heart is sick.

¹⁹Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people

from far and wide in the land:

“Is the Lord not in Zion?

Is her King not in her?”

(“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

with their foreign idols?”)^*

²⁰“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

and we are not saved.”

²¹For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken,

I mourn, and horror has seized me.^*

²²Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?^*