Jeremiah 8 - 9 - Legacy Standard Bible

Jeremiah 8 - 9

The Faithlessness of Jerusalem

“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2 And they will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have walked after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground. 3 And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have banished them,” declares Yahweh of hosts. 4 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh,

“Do men fall and not get up again?

Does one turn away and not turn back?

Why then has this people, Jerusalem,

Turned away in continual faithlessness?

They hold fast to deceit;

They refuse to return.

I have given heed and heard,

They have spoken what is not right;

No man regretted his evil,

Saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turned to his course,

Like a horse charging into the battle.

Even the stork in the sky

Knows her seasons;

And the turtledove and the swift and the crane

Keep the time of their migration;

But My people do not know

The legal judgment of Yahweh.

“How can you say, ‘We are wise,

And the law of Yahweh is with us’?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes

Has made it into a lie.

The wise men are put to shame;

They are dismayed and captured;

Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh,

And what kind of wisdom do they have?

Therefore I will give their wives to others,

Their fields to new possessors,

Because from the least even to the greatest

Everyone is greedy for gain;

From the prophet even to the priest

Everyone practices lying.

They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace.

Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?

They certainly were not ashamed,

And they did not know how to feel dishonor;

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,”

Says Yahweh.

“I will surely gather them up,” declares Yahweh;

“There will be no grapes on the vine

And no figs on the fig tree,

And the leaf will wither;

And what I have given them will pass away.”’”

Why are we sitting still?

Gather yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities

And let us be silent there

Because Yahweh our God has silenced us

And given us poisoned water to drink,

For we have sinned against Yahweh.

We waited for peace, but there was no good;

For a time of healing, but behold, terror!

From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses;

At the sound of the neighing of his valiant steeds

The whole land quakes;

And they come and devour the land as well as its fullness,

The city and its inhabitants.

“For behold, I am sending serpents against you,

Vipers, for which there is no charm,

And they will bite you,” declares Yahweh.

Sorrow over Zion

My sorrow is beyond healing;

My heart is faint within me!

Behold, the sound! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:

“Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”

“Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images, with foreign idols?”

“Harvest is past, summer is ended,

And we are not saved.”

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;

I mourn, desolation has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people gone up?

Oh that my head were waters

And my eyes a fountain of tears,

That I might weep day and night

For the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the desert

A travelers’ lodging place,

That I might leave my people

And go from them!

For all of them are adulterers,

A solemn assembly of treacherous men.

“They bend their tongue like their bow;

Lies and unfaithfulness prevail in the land,

For they go onward from evil to evil,

And they do not know Me,” declares Yahweh.

“Let everyone beware of his neighbor,

And do not trust any brother,

Because every brother surely supplants,

And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

Everyone deceives his neighbor

And does not speak the truth;

They have taught their tongue to speak lies;

They weary themselves committing iniquity.

Your habitation is in the midst of deceit;

Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares Yahweh.

7 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“Behold, I will refine them and test them;

For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow;

It speaks deceit;

With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,

But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.

Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares Yahweh.

“On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?

“For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,

And for the pastures of the wilderness a funeral lamentation,

Because they are turned into ruin so that no one passes through,

And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;

Both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

A haunt of jackals;

And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

12 Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished, turned into ruin like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13 Yahweh said, “Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.” 17 Thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“Carefully consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come;

And send for the skillful women, that they may come!

Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,

That our eyes may shed tears

And our eyelids flow with water.

For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion,

‘How we are destroyed!

We are put to great shame,

For we have left the land

Because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

Indeed, hear the word of Yahweh, O you women,

And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;

Teach your daughters wailing,

And everyone her neighbor a funeral lamentation.

For death has come up through our windows;

It has entered our palaces

To cut off the infants from the streets,

The choice men from the open squares.

Speak, “Thus declares Yahweh,

‘The corpses of men will fall like dung on the open field

And like the sheaf after the reaper,

But no one will gather them.’”

23 Thus says Yahweh, “Let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might; let not a rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Yahweh who shows lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares Yahweh. 25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised— 26 Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”