Jeremiah 8

¹ At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs.

² They shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served and followed, and which they have sought and worshiped. They shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be like dung on the face of the ground.

³ Death shall be chosen over life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of Hosts.

⁴ "Say to them: Thus says the LORD:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
When one turns away, does he not return?

⁵ Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual apostasy?
They cling to deceit;
they refuse to return.

⁶ I have listened and paid attention,
but they speak what is not right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, "What have I done?"
Every one turns to his own course
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows its appointed times;
the turtledove, swallow, and crane
observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
the ordinance of the LORD.

⁸ How can you say, "We are wise,
and the instruction of the LORD is with us"?
But look — the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.

⁹ The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed 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 conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for gain;
from prophet to priest
everyone deals falsely.

¹¹ They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, "Peace, peace,"
when there is no peace.

¹² Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not ashamed at all;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
at the time when I punish them they shall stumble,
says the LORD.

¹³ I will surely sweep them away, declares the LORD.
There are no grapes on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered.
And what I gave them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴ "Why are we sitting still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

¹⁶ From Dan the snorting of their horses is heard;
at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
the whole land quakes.
They come 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 serpents,
adders that cannot be charmed,
and they shall bite you,
declares the LORD.

¹⁸ My joy is gone; grief has come over me;
my heart is sick.

¹⁹ Listen — the cry of the daughter of my people
from a distant land:
"Is the LORD not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?"
"Why have they provoked me to anger
with their carved idols, with their foreign worthless things?"

²⁰ "The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved."

²¹ For the wound of the daughter of my people my heart is wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the wound of the daughter of my people
not been healed?