Jeremiah 8:5-22 ▼

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem perpetually backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to repent.

6 I have given ear and heard, but they did not speak aright; no one repented of his evil, saying, What have I done? All of them walk according to their own will, as a horse that rushes into the battle.

7 Yea, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, surely the lying pen of the scribes has made it for falsehood.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are defeated and caught because they have rejected the word of the LORD, and there is no wisdom in them.

10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields as a spoil; for every one from the least even to the greatest deals treachery, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsehood.

11 And they try to heal the wound of the daughter of my people mockingly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

12 Now they are ashamed because they have committed abomination, but the impudent are not at all ashamed, neither do they know what chastisement is. Therefore they fall among the fallen; in the time of their punishment they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.

13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD; there are no grapes on the vine nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaves are fallen down; and the things that I have given them are passed away from them.

14 And they shall say, Why do we dwell here? Let us gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities and let us be silent there; for the LORD our God has silenced us and has given us bitter water to drink because we have sinned against the LORD.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold distress has befallen us!

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the cry of his mighty men; for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city, and those who dwell in it.

17 For, behold, I will send ferocious serpents among you, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.

18 I am weary with sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people who dwell in a far land; for they say, Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her king in her? For they have provoked me to anger with their graven images and with strange idols.

20 The harvest is past, the grapes are gathered, and we are not saved.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am sorrowful, and astonishment has seized me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no healer there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people restored?