Jeremiah 8

1 “At that time, declares the  Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread a before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. b And they shall not be gathered or buried. c They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3  d Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family e in all the places where I have driven them, declares the  Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

4  “You shall say to them, Thus says the  Lord:
f When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
 5 Why then has this people g turned away
in perpetual h backsliding?
i They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
 6  j I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
k like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
 7 Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and l the turtledove m swallow, and crane ▼
▼ The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

keep the time of their coming,
o but my people know not
the rules ▼
▼ Or just decrees
 of the  Lord.
 8  q “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the  Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
 9  r The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed s and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the  Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
 10  t Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone u is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
 11 They have healed v the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
 12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No w they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
x Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the  Lord.
 13 When I would gather them, declares the  Lord,
there are y no grapes on the vine,
z nor figs on the fig tree;
aa even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.” ▼
▼ The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

 14  Why do we sit still?
ac Gather together; ad let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the  Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has ae given us af poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the  Lord.
 15  ag We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
 16  ah “The snorting of their horses is heard ai from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing aj of their stallions
ak the whole land quakes.
They come al and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
 17 For behold, I am sending among you am serpents,
adders an that cannot be charmed,
ao and they shall bite you,”

declares the  Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

18  My joy is gone; grief is upon me; ▼
▼ Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

aq my heart is sick within me.
 19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from ar the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the  Lord not in Zion?
as Is her King not in her?”
at “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
 20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
 21 For the wound of au the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
av I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
 22  Is there no aw balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?
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