Jeremiah 8–9

¹At that time, an affirmation of Jehovah, They bring 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 inhabitants of Jerusalem, Out of their graves, ²And have spread them to sun, and to moon, And to all the host of the heavens, that they have loved, And that they have served, And that they have walked after, And that they have sought, And to which they have bowed themselves, They are not gathered, nor buried, They are for dung on the face of the ground. ³And chosen is death rather than life By all the remnant who are left of this evil family, In all the remaining places, whither I have driven them, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts.

⁴And thou hast said unto them: Thus said Jehovah, Do they fall, and not rise? Doth he turn back, and not return? ⁵Wherefore hath this people of Jerusalem Turned back—a perpetual backsliding? They have kept hold on deceit, They have refused to turn back. ⁶I have given attention, yea, I hearken, They do not speak right, No man hath repented of his wickedness, Saying, What have I done? Every one hath turned to his courses, As a horse is rushing into battle. ⁷Even a stork in the heavens hath known her seasons, And turtle, and swallow, and crane, Have watched the time of their coming, And—My people have not known the judgment of Jehovah. ⁸How do ye say, We are wise, And the law of Jehovah is with us? Surely, lo, falsely it hath wrought, The false pen of scribes. ⁹Ashamed have been the wise, They have been affrighted, and are captured, Lo, against a word of Jehovah they kicked, And the wisdom of what—have they? ¹⁰Therefore, I give their wives to others, Their fields to dispossessors, For from the least even unto the greatest, Every one is gaining dishonest gain, From prophet even unto priest, every one is dealing falsely. ¹¹And they heal the breach of the daughter of my people slightly, Saying, Peace, peace! and there is no peace. ¹²They were ashamed when they did abomination! Yea, they are not at all ashamed, And blushing they have not known, Therefore, they do fall among falling ones, In the time of their inspection they stumble, said Jehovah.

¹³I utterly consume them, an affirmation of Jehovah, There are no grapes in the vine, Yea, there are no figs in the fig-tree, And the leaf hath faded, And the strength they have passeth from them. ¹⁴Wherefore are we sitting still? Be gathered, and we go in to the fenced cities, And we are silent there, For Jehovah our God hath made us silent, Yea, He causeth us to drink water of gall, For we have sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵Looking for peace—and there is no good, For a time of healing, and lo, terror. ¹⁶From Dan hath been heard the snorting of his horses, From the voice of the neighings of his mighty ones, Trembled hath all the land, And they come in and consume the land and its fulness, The city and the inhabitants in it. ¹⁷For, lo, I am sending among you serpents, Vipers that have no charmer, And they have bitten you, an affirmation of Jehovah. ¹⁸My refreshing for me is sorrow, For me my heart is sick. ¹⁹Lo, the voice of a cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off, Is Jehovah not in Zion? is her king not in her? Wherefore have they provoked Me with their graven images, With the vanities of a foreigner? ²⁰Harvest hath passed, summer hath ended, And we—we have not been saved. ²¹For a breach of the daughter of my people have I been broken, I have been black, astonishment hath seized me. ²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? For wherefore hath not the health of the daughter of my people gone up?

Chapter 9

¹Who doth make my head waters, And mine eye a fountain of tears? And I weep by day and by night, For the wounded of the daughter of my people. ²Who doth give me in a wilderness A lodging-place of travellers? And I leave my people, and go from them, For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous ones. ³And they bend their tongue, their bow is a lie, And not for stedfastness have they been mighty in the land, For from evil unto evil they have gone forth, And Me they have not known, An affirmation of Jehovah! ⁴Each of his friend—beware ye, And on any brother, do not trust, For every brother doth utterly supplant, For every friend slanderously doth walk, ⁵And each at his friend they mock, And truth they do not speak, They taught their tongue to speak falsehood, To commit iniquity they have laboured. ⁶thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit, Through deceit they refused to know Me, An affirmation of Jehovah. ⁷Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Lo, I am refining them, and have tried them, For how do I do because of the daughter of My people? ⁸A slaughtering arrow is their tongue, Deceit it hath spoken in its mouth, Peace with its neighbour it speaketh, And in its heart it layeth its ambush, ⁹For these things do not I see after them? An affirmation of Jehovah, Against a nation such as this doth not My soul avenge itself? ¹⁰For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, And for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, For they have been burnt up without any passing over, Nor have they heard the voice of cattle, From the fowl of the heavens unto the beast they have fled, they have gone. ¹¹And I make Jerusalem become heaps, A habitation of dragons, And the cities of Judah I make a desolation, Without inhabitant.

¹²Who is the wise man? and he understandeth this, And he to whom the mouth of Jehovah spake? And he doth declare it, For what hath the land perished? It hath been burnt up as a wilderness, Without any passing through. ¹³And Jehovah saith: Because of their forsaking My law that I set before them, And they have not hearkened to My voice nor walked in it, ¹⁴And they walk after the stubbornness of their heart, And after the Baalim, that their fathers taught them, ¹⁵Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing them—this people—to eat wormwood, And I have caused them to drink water of gall, ¹⁶And I have scattered them among nations Which they knew not, they and their fathers, And have sent after them the sword, Till I have consumed them. ¹⁷Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Consider ye, and call for mourning women, And they come, And to the wise women send, and they come, ¹⁸And they hasten, and lift up for us a wailing. And run down our eyes do tears, And from our eyelids do waters flow. ¹⁹For—a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: How have we been spoiled! We have been greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because they have cast down our tabernacles. ²⁰But hear, ye women, a word of Jehovah, And your ear receiveth a word of His mouth, And teach ye your daughters wailing, and each her neighbour lamentation. ²¹For death hath come up into our windows, It hath come into our palaces, To cut off the suckling from without, Young men from the broad places. ²²Speak thus—an affirmation of Jehovah, And fallen hath the carcase of man, As dung on the face of the field, And as a handful after the reaper, And there is none gathering.

²³Thus said Jehovah: Let not the wise boast himself in his wisdom, Nor let the mighty boast himself in his might, Let not the rich boast himself in his riches, ²⁴But—in this let the boaster boast himself, In understanding and knowing Me, For I am Jehovah, doing kindness, Judgment, and righteousness, in the earth, For in these I have delighted, An affirmation of Jehovah. ²⁵Lo, days are coming—an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have laid a charge on all circumcised in the foreskin, ²⁶On Egypt, and on Judah, and on Edom, And on the sons of Ammon, and on Moab, And on all cutting the corner of the beard, Who are dwelling in the wilderness, For all the nations are uncircumcised, And all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart!

Chapter 10