Jeremiah 8:4-22

“Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘YAHWEH says: “ ‘Don’t people get back up when they fall down? Don’t they turn around when they take the wrong road? So why have you, the people of Jerusalem, continually refused to turn back to me? Why do you cling so tightly to your deception instead of coming home to me?’ ” I have listened carefully to what they say, but nothing they say is right. No one is sorry about his sin, saying, “What have I done wrong?” Everyone keeps on going his own way, like a war-horse plunging headlong into battle. YAHWEH “Even the stork in the skies knows her season of migration. And migratory birds—the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane — instinctively take flight according to the times I have set for them, but my people pay no attention to the orders of YAHWEH. How dare you say, ‘We are wise, because we have the law of YAHWEH?’ Look! The scribes teach lies about the law. They have made the law itself into a lie! The know-it-alls will be shamed, terrorized, and trapped. They walked away from the word of YAHWEH, so wisdom walked away from them. Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to those who will take over the land. From the smallest to the greatest, they are all greedy for corrupt profits; priest and prophet alike, they all practice deceit. And they treat the wounds of my beloved people as though they were scratches. ‘Don’t worry,’ they say. ‘Peace, everything is well,’ when there is no peace, and nothing is well. They have acted shamefully, and have committed abhorrent acts, yet they feel no shame. They don’t know how to blush. Surely, they will fall among the fallen, and stumble when I deal with them,” says YAHWEH. YAHWEH says: “I will surely make an end of them. There will be neither cluster on the vine nor figs on the fig trees— even the leaves have withered. I gave them a good harvest, but it escaped from them.” Why are we just sitting here? Let’s band together and go inside our walled cities and await our death, since YAHWEH our God has condemned us to die. He has given us our bitter poison to drink, for we have sinned against him. We had hoped for peace and prosperity, but no blessing came. We had hoped for a time of healing, but we were overtaken by sudden terror! The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the cries of his stallions, the whole land quakes. They have entered to completely devastate the land, Jerusalem, and its inhabitants. YAHWEH “For look! I am sending slithering snakes to bite you— venomous vipers that cannot be charmed,” declares YAHWEH. My joy has vanished, grief grips my soul, and I am sick at heart. Listen! I hear my beloved people crying out in despair throughout the land: “Is YAHWEH no longer in Zion? Is her King not dwelling within her?” “So why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign, phony gods?” “Summer has ended, the harvest is past, and still we are not saved!” I am broken over the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn all day long. Horror has gripped me. Is there no healer in Gilead? Is there no medicine there? Why then have the people I love not been healed?