8
Jeremiah

Persistent Idolatry and Coming Punishment (part 1)

Jeremiah 8:4-9:24
4You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: Do they fall and not rise? If one returns, will he not return? 5Why has this people of Jerusalem turned away in perpetual faithlessness? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. 6I listened and heard; they do not speak rightly. No one repents of his harm, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone returns to his course like a horse rushing into battle. 7Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the LORD. 8How can you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Surely, the lying pen of the scribes has made it a lie. 9The wise are put to shame; they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; what wisdom is in them? 10Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to new owners, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely. 11They have healed the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 12They shall fall among the fallen; at the time of their punishment they shall be overthrown, says the LORD, because they committed abomination and were not ashamed; they did not know how to blush. 13I will surely gather them and bring them to an end, declares the LORD. There are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; the leaf withers, and what I give them they pass through. 14Why do we sit still? Gather together and let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. 15We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror. 16The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their strong ones the whole land trembles. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. 17Behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, declares the LORD. 18My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is faint. 19Hark, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length of the land: Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with foreign idols? 20The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. 21For the wound of the daughter of my people my heart is broken; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
Chapter 9
1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. 3They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth prevails in the land, for they proceed from harm to harm, and they do not know me, declares the LORD. 4Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. 5Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. 6Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. 7Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of my people? 8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit; with his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him. 9Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? 10I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; the birds of the heaven and the beasts have fled and are gone. 11I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant. 12Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13And the LORD said, Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in it. 14But they have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baal, as their fathers taught them. 15Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food and give them poisonous water to drink. 16I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them. 17Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come. 18Let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water. 19For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: How we are ruined! We are utterly ashamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings. 20Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach your daughters a lament, and every woman her neighbor a dirge. 21Death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares. 22Speak thus: declares the LORD, The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them. 23Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches. 24But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the land, for in these things I delight, declares the LORD.
Tap a verse