Jeremiah 8
Contemporary English Version
8 Then the bones of the dead kings of Judah and their officials will be dug up, along with the bones of the priests, the prophets, and everyone else in Jerusalem 2 who loved and worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. These bones will be scattered and left lying on the ground like trash, where the sun and moon and stars can shine on them.
3 Some of you people of Judah will be left alive, but I will force you to go to foreign countries, and you will wish you were dead. I, the Lord God All-Powerful, have spoken.
The People Took the Wrong Road
4 The Lord said:
People of Jerusalem,
when you stumble and fall,
you get back up,
and if you take a wrong road,
you turn around and go back.[a]
5 So why do you refuse
to come back to me?
Why do you hold so tightly
to your false gods?
6 I listen carefully,
but none of you admit
that you've done wrong.
Without a second thought,
you run down the wrong road[b]
like horses running blindly
into battle.
7 Storks, doves, swallows,
and thrushes
all know when it's time
to fly away for the winter
and when to come back.
But you, my people,
don't know what I demand.
8 You say, “We are wise
because we have the teachings
and laws of the Lord.”
But I say that your teachers
have turned my words
into lies!
9 Your wise men
have rejected what I say,
and so they have no wisdom.
Now they will be trapped
and put to shame;
they won't know what to do.
10 (A) I'll give their wives and fields
to strangers.
Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
cannot be trusted.
11 (B) All they ever offer
to my deeply wounded people
are empty hopes for peace.
12 They should be ashamed
of the way they live,
but they don't even blush.
And so, when I punish Judah,
they will end up on the ground,
dead like everyone else.
13 I will wipe them out.[c]
They are vines without grapes;
fig trees without figs or leaves.
They have not done a thing
that I told them![d]
I, the Lord, have spoken.
The People and Their Punishment
14 The people of Judah
say to each other,
“What are we waiting for?
Let's run to a town with walls
and die there.
We rebelled against the Lord,
and we were sentenced to die
by drinking poison.
15 We had hoped for peace
and a time of healing,
but all we got was terror.
16 Our enemies have reached
the town of Dan in the north,
and the snorting of their horses
makes us tremble with fear.
The enemy will destroy Jerusalem
and our entire nation.
No one will survive.”
17 “Watch out!” the Lord says.
“I'm sending poisonous snakes
to attack you,
and no one can stop them.”
Jeremiah Mourns for His People
18 I'm burdened with sorrow
and feel like giving up.
19 In a foreign land
my people are crying.
Listen! You'll hear them say,
“Has the Lord deserted Zion?
Is he no longer its king?”
I hear the Lord reply,
“Why did you make me angry
by worshiping useless idols?”
20 The people complain,
“Spring and summer
have come and gone,
but still the Lord
hasn't rescued us.”
21 My people are crushed,
and so is my heart.
I am horrified and mourn.
22 If medicine and doctors
may be found in Gilead,
why aren't my people healed?
Footnotes
- 8.4 if you take … go back: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 8.6 you run down the wrong road: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 8.13 I will wipe them out: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 8.13 They have not … them: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
Jeremiah 8
English Standard Version
8 “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. 2 And they shall be spread (A)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. (B)And they shall not be gathered or buried. (C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 (D)Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family (E)in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.
Sin and Treachery
4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
(F)When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people (G)turned away
in perpetual (H)backsliding?
(I)They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 (J)I 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,
(K)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and (L)the turtledove, (M)swallow, and crane[a]
keep the time of their coming,
(N)but my people know not
the rules[b] of the Lord.
8 (O)“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.
9 (P)The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed (Q)and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 (R)Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone (S)is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed (T)the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, (U)they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
(V)Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are (W)no grapes on the vine,
(X)nor figs on the fig tree;
(Y)even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”[c]
14 Why do we sit still?
(Z)Gather together; (AA)let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has (AB)given us (AC)poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 (AD)We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 (AE)“The snorting of their horses is heard (AF)from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing (AG)of their stallions
(AH)the whole land quakes.
They come (AI)and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you (AJ)serpents,
adders (AK)that cannot be charmed,
(AL)and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Grieves for His People
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;[d]
(AM)my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from (AN)the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
(AO)Is her King not in her?”
(AP)“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of (AQ)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
(AR)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no (AS)balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 8:7 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- Jeremiah 8:7 Or just decrees
- Jeremiah 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
- Jeremiah 8:18 Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
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