14 Why are we sitting here?
    Gather together!
Let us flee to the fortified cities(A)
    and perish there!
For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and given us poisoned water(B) to drink,
    because we have sinned(C) against him.
15 We hoped for peace(D)
    but no good has come,
for a time of healing
    but there is only terror.(E)
16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses(F)
    is heard from Dan;(G)
at the neighing of their stallions
    the whole land trembles.(H)
They have come to devour(I)
    the land and everything in it,
    the city and all who live there.

17 “See, I will send venomous snakes(J) among you,
    vipers that cannot be charmed,(K)
    and they will bite you,”
declares the Lord.

18 You who are my Comforter[a] in sorrow,
    my heart is faint(L) within me.
19 Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:(M)
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King(N) no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused(O) my anger with their images,
    with their worthless(P) foreign idols?”(Q)

20 “The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
    and we are not saved.”

21 Since my people are crushed,(R) I am crushed;
    I mourn,(S) and horror grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?(T)
    Is there no physician(U) there?
Why then is there no healing(V)
    for the wound of my people?

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:18 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.

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