Jeremiah 8

1At that time, declares Yahweh, they will bring out 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 from their graves.

2And they will spread them out before the sun and the moon and all the host of the heavens, which they loved and which they served and after which they walked and which they sought and to which they bowed down. They will not be gathered, and they will not be buried; they will become dung on the surface of the ground.

3And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant who remain from this evil family, in all the places where the remnant remain, where I have driven them—declares Yahweh of hosts.

4You shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh: Do people fall and not rise again? Does one turn away and not return?’

5Why has this people turned away—Jerusalem—with a perpetual turning away? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

6I have paid attention and listened: they do not speak rightly. No man repents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Every one turns in his own course, like a horse rushing into battle.

7Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times, and the turtledove, the swift, and the crane keep the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

8How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us’? But look, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

9The wise men are put to shame; they are dismayed and captured. Look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh, so what wisdom do they have?

10Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who will possess them; for from the least even to the greatest, every one of them is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet even to priest, every one of them practices falsehood.

11They have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

12Were they ashamed because they had done an abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush. Therefore they will fall among the fallen; at the time of their punishment they will stumble, says Yahweh.

13I will surely gather them, declares Yahweh. There are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree; even the leaf has withered, and what I gave them will pass away from them.

14Why are we sitting still? Gather yourselves, and let us enter the fortified cities and perish there, for Yahweh our God has doomed us and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

15We hoped for peace, but there was no good; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

16From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighing of his stallions the whole land quakes. They come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it.

17For behold, I am sending among you snakes, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you, declares Yahweh.

18My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is sick within me.

19Look—the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, with foreign idols?

20The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, and we have not been saved.

21For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn; horror has seized me.

22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come about?

23Oh, that my head were water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.