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
1At that time—oracle of the Lord—the bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves#Bar 2:24. 2and spread out before the sun, the moon, and the whole host of heaven,#Host of heaven: the stars, worshiped by other nations and even by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, particularly during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon. which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon the ground.#Dt 4:19. 3Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked people who remain in any of the places to which I banish them—oracle of the Lord of hosts.
Israel’s Conduct Incomprehensible
4Tell them: Thus says the Lord:
When someone falls, do they not rise again?
if they turn away, do they not turn back?
5Why then do these people resist
with persistent rebellion?
Why do they cling to deception,
refuse to turn back?#Jer 5:3; 7:24, 26.
6I have listened closely:
they speak what is not true;
No one regrets wickedness,
saying, “What have I done?”
Everyone keeps on running their course,
like a horse dashing into battle.#Jb 34:31–32.
7Even the stork in the sky
knows its seasons;
Turtledove, swift, and thrush
observe the time of their return,
But my people do not know
the order of the Lord.#Is 1:3.
8How can you say, “We are wise,#Mal 2:8; Rom 2:17–23.
we have the law of the Lord”?
See, that has been changed into falsehood
by the lying pen of the scribes!#Lying pen of the scribes: because the teachings and interpretations of the scribes ran counter to the word of the Lord.
9The wise are put to shame,
terrified, and trapped;
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what sort of wisdom do they have?#1 Cor 3:20.
Shameless in Their Crimes
10Therefore, I will give their wives to other men,
their fields to new owners.
Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain,
prophet and priest, all practice fraud.#Jer 6:13; Dt 28:30.
11They have treated lightly
the injury to the daughter of my people:#Daughter of my people: see note on 4:11.
“Peace, peace!” they say,
though there is no peace.#Jer 6:14.
12They have acted shamefully; they have done abominable things,
yet they are not at all ashamed,
they do not know how to blush.
Hence they shall be among those who fall;
in their time of punishment they shall stumble,
says the Lord.#Jer 6:15.
Threats of Punishment
13I will gather them all in—oracle of the Lord:
no grapes on the vine,
No figs on the fig trees,
foliage withered!
Whatever I have given them is gone.
14Why do we remain here?
Let us assemble and flee to the fortified cities,
where we will meet our doom;
For the Lord our God has doomed us,
he has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.#Jer 9:14; 23:15.
15We wait for peace to no avail;
for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.#Jer 14:19.
16From Dan is heard
the snorting of horses;
The neighing of stallions
shakes the whole land.
They come to devour the land and everything in it,
the city and its inhabitants.
17Yes, I will send against you
poisonous snakes.
Against them no charm will work
when they bite you—oracle of the Lord.#Dt 32:24.
The Prophet’s Grief over the People’s Suffering
18My joy is gone,
grief is upon me,
my heart is sick.
19Listen! the cry of the daughter of my people,
far and wide in the land!
“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,
is her King no longer in her midst?”
Why do they provoke me with their idols,
with their foreign nonentities?#Dt 32:21; Mi 4:9.
20“The harvest is over, the summer ended,
but we have not yet been saved!”
21I am broken by the injury of the daughter of my people.
I am in mourning; horror has seized me.#Jer 14:17.
22Is there no balm in Gilead,#Gilead: a region southeast of the Sea of Galilee noted for its healing balm.
no healer there?
Why does new flesh not grow
over the wound of the daughter of my people?#Jer 46:11.
23Oh, that my head were a spring of water,
my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
over the slain from the daughter of my people!
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Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc