Jeremiah 8
1 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they will bring out of their tombs 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 people of Jerusalem.
2 They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried; they will become dung on the face of the earth.
3 Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors left from this evil family, in every place where I have driven them,” says the LORD of Armies.
4 You shall say to them, “This is what the LORD says: ‘When someone falls, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return?
5 Why, then, has this people of Jerusalem turned away in a lasting rebellion? They cling to deceit and refuse to return.
6 I have paid attention and listened: they do not speak what is right. No one regrets his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns back to his own course, like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky knows its seasons, and the turtledove, the swift, and the crane keep the time of their return. But my people do not know the justice of the LORD.
8 How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us’? Look, the lying pen of the scribes has turned it into a lie.
9 The wise will be put to shame, terrified, and caught. Look, they have rejected the word of the LORD; what wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to new owners. For from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.
11 They treated the wound of the daughter of my people carelessly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 They should be ashamed of the abomination they have done, but they feel no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; when their time of punishment comes, they will stumble,” says the LORD.
13 “I will utterly sweep them away,” says the LORD. “There are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree; the leaves have withered, and what I gave them will pass away from them.”
14 Why are we sitting here? Gather together; let us go to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We hoped for peace, but no good came; we hoped for a time of healing, but there was terror.
16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of his stallions’ neighing, the whole land trembles. They come and devour the land and everything in it, the city and those who live there.
17 For I am sending against you snakes, adders that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” says the LORD.
18 My comfort in the face of sorrow: my heart is sick within me.
19 Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people comes from a distant land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not there?” Why have they provoked me with their carved images, with the worthless idols of a foreign people?
20 The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and we have not been saved.
21 I am wounded by the wound of the daughter of my people; I mourn, and horror has seized me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, has no healing come to the daughter of my people?
23 If only my head were water and my eyes a spring of tears, so I could weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
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