14 Why are we sitting here?
    Gather together!
Let us flee to the fortified cities
    and perish there!
For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and given us poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against him.
15 We hoped for peace
    but no good has come,
for a time of healing
    but there is only terror.
16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses
    is heard from Dan;
at the neighing of their stallions
    the whole land trembles.
They have come to devour
    the land and everything in it,
    the city and all who live there.

17 ‘See, I will send venomous snakes among you,
    vipers that cannot be charmed,
    and they will bite you,’
declares the Lord.

18 You who are my Comforter[a] in sorrow,
    my heart is faint within me.
19 Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:
‘Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King no longer there?’

‘Why have they aroused my anger with their images,
    with their worthless foreign idols?’

20 ‘The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
    and we are not saved.’

21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
    I mourn, and horror grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
    for the wound of my people?
[b]Oh, that my head were a spring of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
    for the slain of my people.
Oh, that I had in the desert
    a lodging place for travellers,
so that I might leave my people
    and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
    a crowd of unfaithful people.

‘They make ready their tongue
    like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
    that they triumph[c] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
    they do not acknowledge me,’
declares the Lord.
‘Beware of your friends;
    do not trust anyone in your clan.
For every one of them is a deceiver,[d]
    and every friend a slanderer.
Friend deceives friend,
    and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
    they weary themselves with sinning.
You[e] live in the midst of deception;
    in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,’
declares the Lord.

Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:

‘See, I will refine and test them,
    for what else can I do
    because of the sin of my people?
Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
    it speaks deceitfully.
With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbours,
    but in their hearts they set traps for them.
Should I not punish them for this?’
    declares the Lord.
‘Should I not avenge myself
    on such a nation as this?’

10 I will weep and wail for the mountains
    and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands.
They are desolate and untravelled,
    and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds have all fled
    and the animals are gone.

11 ‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
    a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
    so that no one can live there.’

12 Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

13 The Lord said, ‘It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.’ 15 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.’

17 This is what the Lord Almighty says:

‘Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
    send for the most skilful of them.
18 Let them come quickly
    and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
    and water streams from our eyelids.
19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    “How ruined we are!
    How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
    because our houses are in ruins.”’

20 Now, you women, hear the word of the Lord;
    open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
    teach one another a lament.
21 Death has climbed in through our windows
    and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
    and the young men from the public squares.

22 Say, ‘This is what the Lord declares:

‘“Dead bodies will lie
    like dung on the open field,
like cut corn behind the reaper,
    with no one to gather them.”’

23 This is what the Lord says:

‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,’
declares the Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  2. Jeremiah 9:1 In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-26 is numbered 9:1-25.
  3. Jeremiah 9:3 Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth
  4. Jeremiah 9:4 Or a deceiving Jacob
  5. Jeremiah 9:6 That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular)