Jeremiah 8

Bones beneath the heavens

1“At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of Judah’s kings and officials, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of Jerusalem’s inhabitants will be brought out of their graves. 2They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven—the ones they loved, served, followed, sought, and bowed down to. The bones will not be gathered or buried. They will lie like dung on the ground. 3All who remain of this evil family will prefer death to life, wherever I have driven the survivors,” declares the LORD of hosts.

Refusing to return

4“Tell them: This is what the LORD says:
When people fall, don’t they get up?
When someone turns away, doesn’t that person turn back? 5Then why has this people turned away—
Jerusalem—in a lasting refusal to return?
They cling to deceit;
they refuse to turn back. 6I have listened closely,
but they do not speak honestly.
No one regrets their evil
and asks, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone returns to their own course,
like a horse charging into battle. 7Even the stork in the sky knows its appointed seasons;
the turtledove, swift, and crane
keep the time of their return.
But my people do not know
the LORD’s judgment.

8How can you say, ‘We are wise;
the LORD’s instruction is with us’?
Look—the lying pen of the scribes
has turned it into a lie. 9The wise are put to shame,
shattered and trapped.
They have rejected the LORD’s word;
what wisdom do they have?

10So I will give their wives to others
and their fields to new owners.
From the least to the greatest,
everyone is greedy for gain.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals in lies. 11They treat the wound of my daughter, my people,
as though it were slight,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace. 12Were they ashamed of the detestable things they did?
They felt no shame at all;
they did not know how to blush.
So they will fall among the fallen;
when I call them to account, they will stumble,”
says the LORD.

13“I will sweep them away,” declares the LORD.
“No grapes on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree;
the leaves have withered.
What I gave them will pass away from them.” 14“Why are we sitting here?
Gather together!
Let’s enter the fortified cities
and perish there.
For the LORD our God has doomed us
and given us poisoned water to drink,
because we sinned against the LORD. 15We hoped for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but look—terror!”

16From Dan comes the snorting of his horses;
at the neighing of his stallions,
the whole land trembles.
They come and devour the land and all it holds,
the city and those who live in it. 17“Look, I am sending snakes among you,
adders that cannot be charmed.
They will bite you,” declares the LORD.

A wound without healing

18My comfort fails in sorrow;
my heart is sick within me. 19Listen! My daughter, my people, cries out
from a distant land:
‘Is the LORD no longer in Zion?
Is her king no longer there?’
‘Why have they provoked me with their carved images,
with foreign things of emptiness?’ 20“The harvest is past,
the summer is over,
and we have not been saved.” 21At the breaking of my daughter, my people, I am broken.
I mourn;
horror has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no healer there?
Why, then, has healing not come
to my daughter, my people? 23If only my head were water
and my eyes a spring of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my daughter, my people.