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,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Judah from their graves. 2And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground. 3And death will be preferred to life by all the remaining of this evil clan#Or “family” in all the remaining places where I have driven them away,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh.
Yahweh Questions His People
4“And you shall say to them, ‘Thus asks#Or “says” Yahweh:
“Do men fall and not stand up?
If one turns away does he not return?
5Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in enduring apostasy?
They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.#Or “repent”
6I have listened attentively,
and I have listened.
They do not speak honestly,
there is no man who regrets his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’
All of them are turning to their ways of running,
like a horse plunging into battle.
7Even the stork in heaven knows its appointed time,
and the turtledove, and the swallow, and the song bird,
they observe the time of their coming.
But my people do not know the ordinance#Or “law” of Yahweh.
8How can you say, ‘We are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us’?
Look, surely the lying stylus of the scribes#Literally “stylus of lie of scribes” has made it a lie.
9The wise will be put to shame,
they will be dismayed,
and they will get taken.
Look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh,
and what is wisdom to them?
10Therefore I will give their wives to others,
their fields to conquerors,
because from the smallest to the greatest,
all of them make profit for unlawful gain,
from prophet to priest,
all of them practice deceit.
11And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly,
saying,#Literally “to say” ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.
12Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing?
What’s worse,#Or “also” they were not ashamed at all,
and they did not know to feel humiliated.
Therefore#Literally “To thus” they will fall among those who fall;
at the time of their punishment they will stumble,” says Yahweh.
13“I will take away their harvest,”#Literally “I will take away, I will make an end to them” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh.
“There are no grapes on the vine,
and there are no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaves wither,
and what I gave to them passed over them.” ’ ”
The Nation Longs for Yahweh’s Help
14Why are we sitting?
Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities,
and let us perish there,
for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish,
and has provided drink for us, water of poison,
because we have sinned against Yahweh.
15We hope for peace,
but there is no good,
for a time of healing,
but there is terror.
16“From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses,
from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes,
for they come and devour the land,
and that which fills the city,
and those who live in it.
17For look, I am letting loose among you snakes,
adders for which there is no incantation,
and they will bite you,” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh.
18“My comfort is gone from me,
sorrow is on me,
my heart is sick.
19Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people
from a distant land,
‘Is Yahweh not in Zion?
Is her king not in her?’
Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with idols of a foreign land?”
20The harvest has passed,
the summer has come to an end,
and we have not received help.#Or “been saved”
Yahweh’s Lament
21“Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down,
I mourn, horror has seized me.
22Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no healer there?
Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?
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