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#Eze 6:5At that time, says the Lord, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. 2#2Ki 23:5; Jer 9:22And they will 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 will not be gathered, nor be buried. They will be as dung upon the face of the earth. 3#Rev 9:6; Job 7:15–16Death will be chosen rather than life by all the rest of those who remain of this evil family, which remains in all the places wherever I have driven them, says the Lord of Hosts.
Sin and Judgment
4#Pr 24:16; Am 5:2Moreover you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
Do men fall and not arise?
Do they turn away and not repent?
5#Jer 9:6; 5:3 Why then is this people of Jerusalem
turned away by a perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6#Ps 14:2; Job 39:19–25 I listened and heard,
but they did not speak what is right.
No man repented of his wickedness,
saying, “What have I done?”
Everyone turned to his course,
as the horse rushes into the battle.
7#Isa 1:3; SS 2:12; Jer 5:4–5 Indeed, the stork in the sky
knows her appointed times.
And the turtledove and the crane and the swallow
observe the time of their coming.
But My people do not know
the judgment of the Lord.
8#Job 5:12–13; Ro 1:22 How do you say, “We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us”?
Certainly the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9#Jer 6:15; Isa 19:11 The wise men are ashamed;
they are dismayed and caught.
Indeed, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
and what kind of wisdom do they have?
10#Jer 6:12–13 Therefore I will give their wives to others,
and their fields to those who shall inherit them.
For everyone from the least even to the greatest
is given to covetousness;
from the prophet even to the priest
everyone deals falsely.
11#Jer 6:14; La 2:14 For they have healed the brokenness
of the daughter of My people superficially,
saying, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
12#Jer 3:3; Ps 52:7 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
They were not at all ashamed,
nor could they blush.
Therefore they will fall among those who fall;
in the time of their punishment they will be cast down,
says the Lord.
13#Joel 1:7; Mt 21:19 I will surely consume them,
says the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine
nor figs on the fig tree,
and the leaf shall fade;
and the things that I have given them
will pass away from them.
14#Jer 23:15; 9:15; 35:11 Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves,
and let us enter the fortified cities
and let us perish there.
For the Lord our God has doomed us
and given us water of gall to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15#Jer 14:19 We looked for peace,
but no good came;
and for a time of health,
but there was trouble!
16#Jdg 5:22; 18:29 The snorting of his horses
was heard from Dan;
the whole land trembled
at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones.
For they have come and have devoured
the land and all that is in it,
the city, and those who dwell in it.
17#Dt 32:24; Ps 58:4–5 See, I will send serpents against you,
adders, which will not be charmed,
and they will bite you,
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Mourns for His People
18#Isa 22:4; La 1:16–17 My sorrow is beyond healing;
my heart is faint within me.
19#Isa 39:3; 13:5 Listen! The cry of the daughter of my people
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,
with foreign vanities?”
20“The harvest is past,
the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21#Jer 14:17; Joel 2:6 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people am I broken;
I mourn; dismay has taken hold of me.
22#Ge 37:25; Jer 46:11 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health
of the daughter of my people recovered?
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