Jeremiah 8:18-9:6

New Living Translation

Jeremiah Weeps for Sinful Judah

¹⁸My grief is beyond healing;
    my heart is broken.
¹⁹Listen to the weeping of my people;
    it can be heard all across the land.
“Has the Lord abandoned Jerusalem?^[a]” the people ask.
    “Is her King no longer there?”

“Oh, why have they provoked my anger with their carved idols
and their worthless foreign gods?” says the Lord.

²⁰“The harvest is finished,
and the summer is gone,” the people cry,
“yet we are not saved!”

²¹I hurt with the hurt of my people.
    I mourn and am overcome with grief.
²²Is there no medicine in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why is there no healing
    for the wounds of my people?

9 ^[b]If only my head were a pool of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
    for all my people who have been slaughtered.
²^[c]Oh, that I could go away and forget my people
    and live in a travelers’ shack in the desert.
For they are all adulterers—
    a pack of treacherous liars.

Judgment for Disobedience

³“My people bend their tongues like bows
    to shoot out lies.
They refuse to stand up for the truth.
    They only go from bad to worse.
They do not know me,”
    says the Lord.

⁴“Beware of your neighbor!
    Don’t even trust your brother!
For brother takes advantage of brother,
    and friend slanders friend.
⁵They all fool and defraud each other;
    no one tells the truth.
With practiced tongues they tell lies;
    they wear themselves out with all their sinning.
⁶They pile lie upon lie
    and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,”
    says the Lord.