Judah’s Sin and Punishment

1“In that time, says the Lord, they will cast out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its leaders, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who were living in Jerusalem, from their graves. 2And they will spread them out before the sun and the moon and the entire army of the heavens, which they have loved, and served, and followed, and which they have sought and adored. They will not be collected, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure upon the face of the earth. 3And they will greatly prefer death to life: all those who will have been left from this wicked kindred, in all the forsaken places to which I will cast them out, says the Lord of hosts.

4And you will say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who falls, will he not rise again? And he who has been turned away, will he not return?

5Then why have this people in Jerusalem turned away with a contentious loathing? They have taken hold of what is false, and they are not willing to return.

6I paid close attention and I listened carefully. No one is speaking what is good. There is no one who does penance for his sin, saying: ‘What have I done?’ They have all turned to their own course, like a horse rushing with fury into battle.

7The hawk in the heavens has known her time. The turtledove, and the swallow, and the stork have kept the time of their arrival. But my people have not known the judgment of the Lord.

8How can you say: ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?’ Truly, the lying pen of the scribes has wrought falsehood.

9The wise men have been confounded; they were terrified and captured. For they cast aside the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.

10Because of this, I will give their wives to outsiders and their fields to others as an inheritance. For from the least, even to the greatest, they all pursue avarice; from the prophet, even to the priest, they all act with deceit.

11And they healed the destruction of the daughter of my people with disgrace, by saying: ‘Peace, peace,’ though there was no peace.

12They have been confounded because they committed abomination. Or rather, they have not been confounded with shame, for they do not know how to blush. For this reason, they will fall among the fallen. In the time of their visitation, they will fall, says the Lord.

13When gathering, I will gather them together, says the Lord. There are no grapes on the vine, and there are no figs on the fig tree. The leaves have fallen. And I have given them the things that have passed away.”

The People Respond

14“Why are we sitting still? Assemble, and let us enter the fortified city, and let us remain silent there. For the Lord our God has brought us to silence, and he has given us the water of gall as a drink. For we have sinned against the Lord.

15We expected peace, but there was nothing good. We expected a time of health, and behold, dread.”

16“From Dan, the snorting of his horses was heard; the entire land was shaken by the voice of the neighing of his fighters. And they arrived and devoured the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants.

17For behold, I will send among you serpents, king snakes, against which there is no charm, and they will bite you, says the Lord.

Jeremiah Weeps for His People

18My sorrow is beyond sorrow; my heart mourns within me.

19Behold, the voice of the daughter of my people from a far away land. Is the Lord not with Zion, and is her king not within her? Then why have they provoked me to wrath by their graven images, and by their strange vanities?

20The harvest has passed by, the summer is at an end, and we have not been saved.

21Over the destruction of the daughter of my people, I am contrite and saddened; astonishment has taken hold of me.

22Is there no balm in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Then why has the wound of the daughter of my people not been closed?”