Jeremiah 8
8
1Then the bones of the dead kings of Judah and their officials will be dug up, along with the bones of the priests, the prophets, and everyone else in Jerusalem 2who loved and worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. These bones will be scattered and left lying on the ground like trash, where the sun and moon and stars can shine on them.
3Some of you people of Judah will be left alive, but I will force you to go to foreign countries, and you will wish you were dead. I, the Lord God All-Powerful, have spoken.
The People Took the Wrong Road
4The Lord said:
People of Jerusalem,
when you stumble and fall,
you get back up,
and if you take a wrong road,
you turn around and go back.#8.4 if you take … go back: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
5So why do you refuse
to come back to me?
Why do you hold so tightly
to your false gods?
6I listen carefully,
but none of you admit
that you've done wrong.
Without a second thought,
you run down the wrong road#8.6 you run down the wrong road: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
like horses running blindly
into battle.
7Storks, doves, swallows,
and thrushes
all know when it's time
to fly away for the winter
and when to come back.
But you, my people,
don't know what I demand.
8You say, “We are wise
because we have the teachings
and laws of the Lord.”
But I say that your teachers
have turned my words
into lies!
9Your wise men
have rejected what I say,
and so they have no wisdom.
Now they will be trapped
and put to shame;
they won't know what to do.
10 #
Jr 6.12-15. I'll give their wives and fields
to strangers.
Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
cannot be trusted.
11 #
Ez 13.10. All they ever offer
to my deeply wounded people
are empty hopes for peace.
12They should be ashamed
of the way they live,
but they don't even blush.
And so, when I punish Judah,
they will end up on the ground,
dead like everyone else.
13I will wipe them out.#8.13 I will wipe them out: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
They are vines without grapes;
fig trees without figs or leaves.
They have not done a thing
that I told them!#8.13 They have not … them: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
The People and Their Punishment
14The people of Judah
say to each other,
“What are we waiting for?
Let's run to a town with walls
and die there.
We rebelled against the Lord,
and we were sentenced to die
by drinking poison.
15We had hoped for peace
and a time of healing,
but all we got was terror.
16Our enemies have reached
the town of Dan in the north,
and the snorting of their horses
makes us tremble with fear.
The enemy will destroy Jerusalem
and our entire nation.
No one will survive.”
17“Watch out!” the Lord says.
“I'm sending poisonous snakes
to attack you,
and no one can stop them.”
Jeremiah Mourns for His People
18I'm burdened with sorrow
and feel like giving up.
19In a foreign land
my people are crying.
Listen! You'll hear them say,
“Has the Lord deserted Zion?
Is he no longer its king?”
I hear the Lord reply,
“Why did you make me angry
by worshiping useless idols?”
20The people complain,
“Spring and summer
have come and gone,
but still the Lord
hasn't rescued us.”
21My people are crushed,
and so is my heart.
I am horrified and mourn.
22If medicine and doctors
may be found in Gilead,
why aren't my people healed?
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Jeremiah 8: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 8
8
1“At that time,” says the Lord, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its 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. 2They 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, which they have sought and #2 Kin. 23:5; Jer. 19:13; Ezek. 8:16; Zeph. 1:5; Acts 7:42which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered #Jer. 22:19nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. 3Then #Job 3:21, 22; 7:15, 16; Jon. 4:3; Rev. 9:6death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.
The Peril of False Teaching
4“Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
5Why has this people #Jer. 7:24slidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
#Jer. 9:6They hold fast to deceit,
#Jer. 5:3They refuse to return.
6#Ps. 14:2; (Is. 30:18; Mal. 3:16; 2 Pet. 3:9)I listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
#Ezek. 22:30; Mic. 7:2; Rev. 9:20No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.
7“Even #Prov. 6:6–8; Song 2:12; Is. 1:3; Matt. 16:2, 3the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But #Jer. 5:4; 9:3My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.
8“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
#Rom. 2:17And the law of the Lord is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
9#Is. 19:11; Jer. 6:15; (1 Cor. 1:27)The wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
So #Is. 44:25; Jer. 4:22what wisdom do they have?
10Therefore #Deut. 28:30; Amos 5:11; Zeph. 1:13I will give their wives to others,
And their fields to those who will inherit them;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to #Is. 56:11; 57:17; Jer. 6:13covetousness;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
11For they have #Jer. 6:14healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly,
Saying, #Ezek. 13:10‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
12Were they #Ps. 52:1, 7; Is. 3:9; Jer. 3:3; 6:15; Zeph. 3:5ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed,
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
In the time of their punishment
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.
13“I will surely consume them,” says the Lord.
“No grapes shall be #Jer. 5:17; 7:20; Joel 1:17on the vine,
Nor figs on the #Matt. 21:19; Luke 13:6fig tree,
And the leaf shall fade;
And the things I have given them shall #Deut. 28:39, 40pass away from them.” ’ ”
14“Why do we sit still?
#Jer. 4:5Assemble yourselves,
And let us enter the fortified cities,
And let us be silent there.
For the Lord our God has put us to silence
And given us #Deut. 29:18; Ps. 69:21; Jer. 9:15; Lam. 3:19; Matt. 27:34water of gall to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15“We #Jer. 14:19looked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of health, and there was trouble!
16The snorting of His horses was heard from #Judg. 18:29; Jer. 4:15Dan.
The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His #Jer. 47:3strong ones;
For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell in it.”
17“For behold, I will send serpents among you,
Vipers which cannot be #Ps. 58:4, 5charmed,
And they shall bite you,” says the Lord.
The Prophet Mourns for the People
18I would comfort myself in sorrow;
My heart is faint in me.
19Listen! The voice,
The cry of the daughter of my people
From #Is. 39:3; Jer. 5:15a far country:
“Is not the Lord in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”
20“The harvest is past,
The summer is ended,
And we are not saved!”
21#Jer. 9:1For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am #Jer. 14:2; Joel 2:6; Nah. 2:10mourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
22Is there no #Gen. 37:25; Jer. 46:11balm in Gilead,
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.