Jeremiah Laments over the Coming Destruction

8:14 The people say,33

“Why are we just sitting here?

Let us gather together inside the fortified cities.34

Let us at least die there fighting,35

since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.

He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment36

because we have sinned against him.37

8:15 We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it.

We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror.38

8:16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses

is already being heard in the city of Dan.

The sound of the neighing of their stallions39

causes the whole land to tremble with fear.

They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!

They are coming to destroy40 the cities and everyone who lives in them!”

8:17 The Lord says,41

“Yes indeed,42 I am sending an enemy against you

that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away.43

And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.”44

8:18 Then I said,45

“There is no cure46 for my grief!

I am sick at heart!

8:19 I hear my dear people47 crying out48

throughout the length and breadth of the land.49

They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?

Is her divine King50 no longer there?’ ”

The Lord answers,51

“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,

with their worthless foreign idols?”52

8:20 “They cry,53 ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over,54

and still we have not been delivered.’

8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people55 are being crushed.56

I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay.57

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment58 available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there!59

Why then have my dear people60

not been restored to health?61

9:1 (8:23)1 I wish that my head were a well full of water2

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people3 who have been killed.

9:2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert

where I could spend some time like a weary traveler.4

Then I would desert my people

and walk away from them

because they are all unfaithful to God,

a congregation5 of people that has been disloyal to him.6