Jeremiah 8:18-9:18

18You who are my Comforter The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. in sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

19Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they aroused my anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

20“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”

21Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

1In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-26 is numbered 9:1-25. Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

2Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

3“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD .

4“Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, Or a deceiving Jacob and every friend a slanderer.

5Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.

6You That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular) live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD .

7Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?

8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.

9Should I not punish them for this?” declares the LORD . “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”

10I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.

11“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? 13The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” 15Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.

16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

17This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.

18Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.