1‘At that time the tombs will be opened,’ announces the LORD. ‘The bones of the kings and officials of Judah will be brought out. The bones of the priests and prophets will be removed. So will the bones of the people of Jerusalem.2They will lie outside under the sun, moon and all the stars. All these people had loved and served these things. They had followed them and worshipped them. They had asked them for advice. So the bones of these people will not be gathered up or buried again. Instead, they will be like human waste lying there on the ground.3Everyone left alive in this evil nation will want to die rather than live. That is what they will long for in the lands where I force them to go.’ The LORD who rules over all announces this.
The Lord punishes his sinful people
4‘Jeremiah, tell them, “The LORD says, ‘ “ ‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When someone turns away, don’t they come back?5Then why have the people of Jerusalem turned away from me? Why do they always turn away? They keep on telling lies. They refuse to come back to me.6I have listened carefully. But they do not say what is right. They refuse to turn away from their sins. None of them says, “What have I done?” Each of them goes their own way. They are like horses charging into battle.7Storks know when to fly south. So do doves, swifts and thrushes. But my people do not know what I require them to do.8‘ “ ‘How can you people say, “We are wise. We have the law of the LORD”? Actually, the teachers of the law have told lies about it. Their pens have not written what is true.9Those who think they are wise will be put to shame. They will become terrified. They will be trapped. They have not accepted my message. So what kind of wisdom do they have?10I will give their wives to other men. I will give their fields to new owners. Everyone wants to get richer and richer. Everyone is greedy, from the least important to the most important. Prophets and priests alike try to fool everyone they can.11They bandage the wounds of my people as if they were not very deep. “Peace, peace,” they say. But there isn’t any peace.12Are they ashamed of their hateful actions? No. They do not feel any shame at all. They do not even know how to blush. So they will fall like others who have already fallen. They will be brought down when I punish them,’ says the LORD.13‘ “ ‘I will take away their harvest,’ announces the LORD. ‘There will not be any grapes on the vines. The trees will not bear any figs. The leaves on the trees will dry up. What I have given my people will be taken away from them.’ ” ’14Why are we sitting here? Let’s gather together! Let’s run to the cities that have high walls around them! Let’s die there! The LORD our God has sentenced us to death. He has given us poisoned water to drink. That’s because we’ve sinned against him.15We hoped peace would come. But nothing good has happened to us. We hoped we would finally be healed. But there is only terror.16When our enemy’s horses snort, the noise is heard all the way from the city of Dan. When their stallions neigh, the whole land trembles with fear. They have come to destroy the land and everything in it. The city and everyone who lives there will be destroyed.17‘People of Judah, I will send poisonous snakes among you. No one will be able to charm them. And they will bite you,’ announces the LORD.18LORD, my heart is weak inside me. You comfort me when I’m sad.19Listen to the cries of my people from a land far away. They cry out, ‘Isn’t the LORD in Zion? Isn’t its King there anymore?’ The LORD says, ‘Why have they made me so angry by worshipping their wooden gods? Why have they made me angry with their worthless statues of gods from other lands?’20The people say, ‘The harvest is over. The summer has ended. And we still haven’t been saved.’21My people are crushed, so I am crushed. I mourn, and I am filled with horror.22Isn’t there any healing lotion in Gilead? Isn’t there a doctor there? Then why doesn’t someone heal the wounds of my people?
Jeremiah 8
English Standard Version
1“At that time, declares the Lord, 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 shall be brought out of their tombs.2And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. (De 4:19; 2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 23:5; Job 27:19; Job 31:26; Jer 9:22; Jer 16:4; Jer 25:33; Eze 8:16)3Death shall be preferred to 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. (Job 3:21; Job 7:15; Jer 23:3; Jer 23:8; Jer 29:14; Jer 29:18; Jer 32:37; Da 9:7; Re 9:6)
Sin and Treachery
4“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? (Ro 11:11)5Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. (Jer 2:19; Jer 7:24; Jer 9:6)6I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. (Job 39:19; 2Pe 3:9)7Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane[1] keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules[2] of the Lord. (So 2:12; Isa 1:3; Isa 38:14; Jer 5:4)8“How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. (Ro 2:17)9The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them? (Job 5:13; 1Co 1:19)10Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. (Isa 56:11; Jer 6:12)11They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. (Jer 8:21)12Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. (Jer 3:3; Ho 4:5)13When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”[3] (Isa 1:30; Isa 5:1; Joe 1:7; Mt 21:19; Lu 13:6)14Why do we sit 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. (De 29:18; Jer 4:5; Jer 9:15; Jer 23:15; La 3:15; La 3:19; Am 6:12; Re 8:11)15We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror. (Job 30:26; Jer 14:19)16“The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; 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. (Jud 5:22; Job 39:20; Ps 60:2; Jer 4:15; Jer 10:25; Jer 47:2; Jer 49:21; Jer 51:29)17For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you,” declares the Lord. (Le 26:22; Nu 21:6; Ps 58:4; Ec 10:11)
Jeremiah Grieves for His People
18My joy is gone; grief is upon me;[4] my heart is sick within me. (Isa 1:5; La 1:13; La 1:22; La 5:17)19Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols?” (De 32:21; Isa 33:17; Isa 39:3)20“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”21For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. (Job 30:30; Jer 8:11; Jer 14:17; La 4:8; Joe 2:6; Na 2:10)22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? (Ge 37:25; Jer 46:11)