Jeremiah 8
8
1“At that time the bones of the kings and of the officials of Judah, as well as the bones of the priests, of the prophets, and of the other people who lived in Jerusalem, will be taken out of their graves. 2Instead of being gathered and buried, their bones will be like manure lying on the ground. They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, which these people have loved and served, and which they have consulted and worshipped. 3And the people of this evil nation who survive, who live in the places where I have scattered them, will prefer to die rather than to go on living. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.”
Sin and Punishment
4The LORD told me to say to his people, “When someone falls down, doesn't he get back up? If someone misses the road, doesn't he turn back? 5Why then, my people, do you turn away from me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to me. 6I listened carefully, but you did not speak the truth. Not one of you has been sorry for his wickedness; not one of you has asked, ‘What have I done wrong?’ Everyone keeps on going his own way, like a horse rushing into battle. 7Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you. 8How can you say that you are wise, and that you know my laws? Look, the laws have been changed by dishonest scribes. 9Your wise men are put to shame; they are confused and trapped. They have rejected my words; what wisdom have they got now? 10#Jer 6.12–15So I will give their fields to new owners and their wives to other men. Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly. Even prophets and priests cheat the people. 11#Ezek 13.10They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well. 12My people, were you ashamed because you did these disgusting things? No, you were not ashamed at all; you don't even know how to blush! And so you will fall as others have fallen; when I punish you, that will be the end of you. I, the LORD, have spoken.
13“I wanted to gather my people, as a farmer gathers a harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land.”#8.13 Therefore… land; Hebrew unclear.
14“Why are we sitting still?” God's people ask. “Come on, we will run to the fortified cities, and die there. The LORD our God has condemned us to die; he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against him. 15We hoped for peace and a time of healing, but it was no use; terror came instead. 16Our enemies are already in the city of Dan; we hear the snorting of their horses. The whole land trembles when their horses neigh. Our enemies have come to destroy our land and everything in it, our city and all its people.”
17“Watch out!” the LORD says, “I am sending snakes among you, poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you.”
Jeremiah's Sorrow for his People
18My sorrow cannot be healed;#8.18 Probable text My sorrow… healed; Hebrew unclear.
I am sick at heart.
19Listen! Throughout the land
I hear my people crying out,
“Is the LORD no longer in Zion?
Is Zion's king no longer there?”
The LORD, their king, replies,
“Why have you made me angry by worshipping your idols
and by bowing down to your useless foreign gods?”
20The people cry out,
“The summer is gone, the harvest is over,
but we have not been saved.”
21My heart has been crushed
because my people are crushed;
I mourn; I am completely dismayed.
22Is there no medicine in Gilead?#8.22 Gilead: A region east of the Jordan, famous for plants that were used for medicinal purposes.
Are there no doctors there?
Why, then, have my people not been healed?
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Jeremiah 8: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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.