Jeremiah 8:13–22

¹³“ ‘I will take away their harvest,

declares the Lord.

There will be no grapes on the vine.^g

There will be no figs^h on the tree,

and their leaves will wither.ⁱ

What I have given them

will be taken^j from them.^a’ ”

¹⁴Why are we sitting here?

Gather together!

Let us flee to the fortified cities^k

and perish there!

For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish

and given us poisoned water^l to drink,

because we have sinned^m against him.

¹⁵We hoped for peaceⁿ

but no good has come,

for a time of healing

but there is only terror.^o

¹⁶The snorting of the enemy’s horses^p

is heard from Dan;^q

at the neighing of their stallions

the whole land trembles.^r

They have come to devour^s

the land and everything in it,

the city and all who live there.

¹⁷“See, I will send venomous snakes^t among you,

vipers that cannot be charmed,^u

and they will bite you,”

declares the Lord.

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?