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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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 8
8
Jeremiah 8
1¶ At that time, said the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his 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;
2and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved and whom they have served and after whom they have walked and whom they have sought and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
3And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those that remain of this evil generation, in all the places where I have driven those that remain, said the Lord of the hosts.
4¶ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus hath the Lord said: The one who falls, does he never arise? he who turns away, does he never return?
5Why then is this people of Jerusalem rebellious with a perpetual rebellion? They hold fast deceit; they refuse to return.
6I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak aright: there was no man that repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? each one returned to his course as the horse rushes into the battle.
7Even the stork in the heaven knows her appointed time; and the turtle dove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people did not know the judgment of the Lord.
8How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Behold, certainly in vain did he make the pen; the scribes were in vain.
9The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?
10Therefore I will give their wives unto others and their fields unto those that shall inherit them: for each one from the least even unto the greatest is given to greed; from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
11For they have treated the destruction of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those that should fall: when I visit them, they shall fall, saith the Lord.
13¶ I will surely cut them off completely, said the Lord: there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fall; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
14Upon what shall we secure ourselves? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God has put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink because we have sinned against the Lord.
15We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
16The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole earth trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein.
17For, behold, I send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, said the Lord.
18Because of my strong sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
19Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people that comes from a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with vanities of a strange god?
20The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am devastated; I am in darkness; astonishment has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then was there no medicine for the daughter of my people?
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International