Jeremiah 8

¹ 'When that time comes, Yahweh declares, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its chief men,the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, wil be takenfrom their tombs.

² They wil be spread out before the sun, the moon, the whole array of heaven, whom they have loved andserved, fol owed, consulted and worshipped. They wil not be gathered or reburied but will be left lying on thesurface like dung.

³ And death will seem preferable to life to al the survivors of this wicked race, wherever I have driventhem, Yahweh Sabaoth declares.

⁴ 'You are to tel them, "Yahweh says this: If someone fal s, can he not stand up again? If people stray,can they not turn back?

⁵ Why does this people persist in acts of infidelity, why does Jerusalem persist in continuous infidelity?They cling to il usion, they refuse to turn back.

⁶ I have listened attentively: they have never said anything like that. Not one repents of wickednesssaying: What have I done? Each one keeps returning to the course like a horse charging into battle.

⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows the appropriate season; turtledove, swal ow and crane observe theirtime of migration. But my people do not know Yahweh's laws!" '

⁸ How can you say, 'We are wise, since we have Yahweh's Law?' Look how it has been falsified by thelying pen of the scribes!

⁹ The wise are put to shame, alarmed, caught out because they have rejected Yahweh's word. What pricetheir wisdom now?

¹⁰ So I shal give their wives to other men, their fields to new masters, for, from the least to greatest, theyare al greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, al of them practise fraud.

¹¹ Without concern they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, saying, 'Peace! Peace!' whereasthere is no peace.

¹² They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds. Not they! They feel no shame, they do not evenknow how to blush. And so as others fall, they too wil fal , will be thrown down when the time for punishing themcomes, Yahweh says.

¹³ I shal put an end to them, Yahweh declares, no more grapes on the vine, no more figs on the fig treeonly withered leaves: I have found them people to trample on them!

¹⁴ Why are we sitting still? Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns and there fall silent, since Yahweh ourGod means to silence us by giving us poisoned water to drink because we have sinned against him.

¹⁵ We are hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the time of healing -- nothing but terror!

¹⁶ From Dan you can hear the snorting of his horses; at the neighing of his stal ions the whole countryquakes; they are coming to devour the country and its contents, the town and those that live in it.

¹⁷ Yes, now I am sending you poisonous snakes against which no charm exists; and they wil bite you,Yahweh declares.

¹⁸ Incurable sorrow overtakes me, my heart fails me.

¹⁹ Hark, from the daughter of my people the cry for help, ringing far and wide throughout the land! 'IsYahweh no longer in Zion, her King no longer there?' (Why have they provoked me with their idols, with theirfutile foreign gods?)

²⁰ 'Harvest is over, summer at an end, and we have not been saved!'

²¹ The wound of the daughter of my people wounds me too, all looks dark to me, terror grips me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead any more? Is no doctor there? Then why is there no progress in the cure ofthe daughter of my people?

²³ Who wil turn my head into a fountain, and my eyes into a spring of tears, that I can weep day and nightover the slain of the daughter of my people?