Jeremiah 8-9

American Standard Version

8 At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; ² and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? ⁵ Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. ⁶ I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one ^[a]turneth to his course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle. ⁷ Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

⁸ How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath ^[b]wrought falsely. ⁹ The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them? ¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. ¹¹ And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. ¹² Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah. ¹³ I will utterly consume them, saith Jehovah: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and ^[c]the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us ^[d]be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath ^[e]put us to silence, and given us water of ^[f]gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! ¹⁶ The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein. ¹⁷ For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. ¹⁹ Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people ^[g]from a land that is very far off: Is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities? ²⁰ The harvest is past, the ^[h]summer is ended, and we are not saved. ²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me. ²² Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the ^[i]health of the daughter of my people ^[j]recovered?

9 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! ^2 [k]Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ³ And they bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for ^[l]truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah. ⁴ Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. ⁵ And they will ^[m]deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity. ⁶ Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jehovah.

⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how else should I do, because of the daughter of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait for him. ⁹ Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone. ¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place 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 Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through? ¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, ¹⁴ but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them; ¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of ^[n]gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come: ¹⁸ and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. ¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because ^[o]they have cast down our dwellings. ²⁰ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. ²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. ²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather them.

²³ Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; ²⁴ but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish all them that are circumcised in their uncircumcision: ²⁶ Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.