Jeremiah 8

1At that time, declares the LORD, they will bring out from their graves 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. 2They will spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of the heavens, which they loved, served, followed, sought, and bowed down to. They will not be gathered or buried; they will become dung on the face of the ground. 3Death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant who remain of this evil family, in every place where I have driven them, declares the LORD of Hosts.

4You shall say to them: Thus says the LORD:

Do people fall and not rise again?
Do they turn away and not return? 5Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away
in a lasting turning away?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return. 6I have listened and heard:
they do not speak what is right.
No one repents of their evil, saying,
“What have I done?”
All of them turn to their own course,
like a horse rushing into battle. 7Even the stork in the heavens
knows its appointed times;
the dove, 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 the LORD is with us”? Look, certainly, the lying pen of the scribes has made it a lie. 9The wise are put to shame; they are dismayed and caught. Look, they have rejected the word of the LORD; 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 to the greatest, every one of them is greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, every one of them deals falsely. 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 did an abomination? No, they were not ashamed at all; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they will stumble, says the LORD.

13I will surely gather them, declares the LORD. There are no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf has withered; and I have given them things that will pass over them. 14Why are we sitting still? Gather yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has brought us to ruin and given us poisonous water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. 15We hoped for peace, but there was no good; for a time of healing, but look—terror!

16From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses;
at the sound of the neighing of his stallions,
the whole land shakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who live in it. 17For look, I am sending among you snakes, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you, declares the LORD.

18My comfort in grief!
My heart is faint within me. 19Look—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 images,
with foreign vanities?” 20“The harvest has passed,
the summer has ended,
and we have not been saved.” 21For the wound of the daughter of my people I am shattered;
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? 23Oh, that my head were water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people.