Jeremiah 8:18-9:7

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?