Jeremiah 8:1-22
8 At that time, quoth Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of Judah’s kings and generals and of the priests and prophets and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves
2 and spread them out to the sun and moon and all the legions of the sky, which they have loved and worshiped and followed and invoked and done reverence to; they shall not be gathered up nor buried, they shall be just dung lying over the soil;
3 * and death shall be preferable to life for all the surviving remnant of this clan in all the places I have banished them to, quoth Jehovah of Armies.
4 “And say to them ‘Says Jehovah, Does one fall and not get up? or go back and not come on again?
5 how comes it this people is recreant in continuous inconstancy? they hold on to dishonesty, they refuse to turn back.
6 * I have listened and heard; they are not talking straightforwardly. There is not a man that repents of his fault with “What have I been doing?” they are everyone roving wherever they can run, like a pony running about in a battle.
7 * Even the stork in the sky knows its dates, and the turtledove and swallow and crane keep their times for coming; but my people do not know Jehovah’s law.
8 How are you to say “We are wise and have Jehovah’s law on hand”? why, scribes’ lying pens have made it a lie.
9 * Wise men are put to shame, dismayed and caught; for they have rejected Jehovah’s word, and what do they have wisdom about?
10 * So I will give their wives to others, their lands to dispossessors.
11 ——
12 ——
13 * I will sweep them up, quoth Jehovah; there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the tree, and the leaves are faded, and I have given them such as pass through them.’”
14 What are we sitting here for? in with you, let us get into the fortified cities and sink into silence there; for our God Jehovah has sunk us in silence and given us poppy-juice to drink because we had sinned against Jehovah.
15 We look for things to be all right, and there is nothing good; for a time of healing, and we find dissolution.
16 The snorting of his ponies is heard from Dan; all the earth shakes with the sound of the neighing of his chargers; and they come and eat up country and resources, city and inhabitants.
17 For here I am sending you cobra snakes for which there is no charm, and they will bite you incurably.
18 * I am burdened with sorrow, with an unstrung heart.
19 Hark, the clamor of the daughter of my people from a far country “Is Jehovah not in Sion? is her King not in her?”How came you to be provoking me with your carvings, your foreign superstitions?
20 Harvest is past, fruit-picking is done, and we are not saved.
21 * At the maiming of the daughter of my people I am maimed, I go black, horror has seized me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead or is there no physician there? for how is it there is no healing coming on the wounds of the daughter of my people?
Footnotes
^ 8:3 Var. this bad clan
^ 8:6 Lit. everyone turning back (or going over again) in their running
^ 8:7 (swallow and crane) Unc.; susp.
^ 8:9 Var. there they have rejected
^ 8:10 Var. adds verses 13-15 of chapter 6 here as last part of verse 10 and verses 11-12
^ 8:13 (last words) Susp.; var. work them Var. omits from and to the end
^ 8:18 Lit. On me are sorrows, on me is my heart sick
^ 8:21 Lit. breaking . . . broken
