Jeremiah 9:15
New International Version
Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.

New Living Translation
So now, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.

English Standard Version
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.

Berean Standard Bible
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

King James Bible
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

New King James Version
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

New American Standard Bible
therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink.

NASB 1995
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

NASB 1977
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

Legacy Standard Bible
therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

Amplified Bible
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Therefore, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

American Standard Version
therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Contemporary English Version
So I, the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, promise them poison to eat and drink.

English Revised Version
therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to feed these people bitterness and give them poison to drink.

Good News Translation
So then, listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, will do: I will give my people bitter plants to eat and poison to drink.

International Standard Version
Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I'll make these people eat wormwood and drink poisoned water.

Majority Standard Bible
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ?Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

NET Bible
So then, listen to what I, the LORD God of Israel who rules over all, say. 'I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment.

New Heart English Bible
therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Look, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

World English Bible
Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Therefore, thus said YHWH of Hosts, God of Israel: “Behold, I am causing them—this people—to eat wormwood, "" And I have caused them to drink water of gall,

Young's Literal Translation
Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing them -- this people -- to eat wormwood, And I have caused them to drink water of gall,

Smith's Literal Translation
For this, thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: Behold me causing this people to eat wormwood, and I gave them to drink water of poison.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Catholic Public Domain Version
For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed this people with absinthe, and I will give them the water of gall to drink.

New American Bible
therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink.

New Revised Standard Version
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am feeding this people with wormwood, and giving them poisonous water to drink.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them bitter water to drink.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
Because of this, thus says LORD JEHOVAH of Hosts, God of Israel: “Behold, I feed this people bitter herbs and give them bitter waters to drink
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, And give them water of gall to drink.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them with trouble and will cause them to drink water of gall:

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Lament over Zion
14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.” 15Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. 16I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”…

Cross References
Deuteronomy 29:18-19
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, / because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

Isaiah 29:8
as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

Lamentations 3:15
He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

Ezekiel 4:16-17
Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. / So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

Ezekiel 12:19
Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

Hosea 9:3
They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

Amos 8:11-12
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. / People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

Revelation 8:11
The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.

Revelation 16:4-6
And the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned to blood. / And I heard the angel of the waters say: “Righteous are You, O Holy One, who is and was, because You have brought these judgments. / For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

Matthew 24:7
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Luke 21:11
There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

John 4:13-14
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. / But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 6:35
Jesus answered, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst.

John 7:37-38
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. / Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’”

Romans 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. / Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, / and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. ...


Treasury of Scripture

Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

I will.

Jeremiah 8:14
Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:15
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

Jeremiah 25:15
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

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Jeremiah 9
1. Jeremiah laments the people for their manifold sins;
9. and for their judgment.
12. Disobedience is the cause of their bitter calamity.
17. He exhorts to mourn for their destruction;
23. and to trust not in themselves, but in God.
25. He threatens both Jews and Gentiles.














Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:
This phrase emphasizes the authority and sovereignty of God, who is not only the God of Israel but also the LORD of Hosts, indicating His command over heavenly armies. This title underscores His power and the seriousness of the message. The phrase "the God of Israel" reminds the people of their covenant relationship with God, which they have violated, leading to the pronouncement of judgment.

Behold, I will feed this people wormwood:
Wormwood is a bitter plant often associated with sorrow and calamity. In biblical symbolism, it represents divine judgment and bitterness of life due to sin. The use of "feed" suggests that the consequences of their actions will be inescapable and pervasive, affecting their daily lives. This imagery is also found in Lamentations 3:15, where wormwood signifies the bitterness of suffering and judgment.

and give them poisoned water to drink:
The poisoned water symbolizes the severe consequences of turning away from God. In the ancient Near East, water was a vital resource, and its contamination would lead to widespread suffering and death. This imagery is reminiscent of the plagues in Egypt, where water was turned to blood, rendering it undrinkable (Exodus 7:20-21). It also foreshadows the ultimate spiritual desolation that comes from rejecting God, contrasting with the living water offered by Jesus in John 4:10-14, which brings eternal life.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD of Hosts
This title emphasizes God's supreme authority and power over all heavenly and earthly armies. It underscores His ability to execute judgment and fulfill His promises.

2. The God of Israel
This designation highlights the covenant relationship between God and the nation of Israel, reminding them of their unique status and responsibilities.

3. Jeremiah
The prophet through whom God delivers this message. He is known for his role in warning Judah of impending judgment due to their unfaithfulness.

4. The People of Israel
The recipients of this message, who have turned away from God, leading to the pronouncement of judgment.

5. Wormwood and Poisoned Water
Symbolic elements representing the bitterness and suffering that will come upon the people as a consequence of their disobedience.
Teaching Points
The Seriousness of Sin
Sin has real and severe consequences. Just as God warned Israel, He warns us today about the dangers of turning away from Him.

God's Righteous Judgment
God's judgments are just and righteous. He does not act capriciously but responds to persistent disobedience and rebellion.

The Call to Repentance
Even in judgment, there is an implicit call to repentance. God desires that His people turn back to Him and avoid the bitter consequences of sin.

The Importance of Covenant Faithfulness
As believers, we are called to remain faithful to our covenant relationship with God, just as Israel was called to be faithful to theirs.

The Hope of Redemption
While this passage speaks of judgment, the broader account of Scripture offers hope and redemption through Christ, who takes upon Himself the bitterness of our sin.(15) Wormwood.--As a plant, probably a species of Artemisia, four species of which are found in Palestine. In Deuteronomy 29:18 it appears as the symbol of moral evil, here of the bitterness of calamity.

Water of gall.--See Note on Jeremiah 8:14.

Verse 15. - I will feed them... with wormwood. A figure for the bitter privations of captivity (comp. Lamentations 3:15, "He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood"). Wormwood and gall - i.e., the poppy (Tristram) - are combined again in Deuteronomy 29:17.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Therefore,
לָכֵ֗ן (lā·ḵên)
Adverb
Strong's 3651: So -- thus

this is what
כֹּֽה־ (kōh-)
Adverb
Strong's 3541: Like this, thus, here, now

the LORD
יְהוָ֤ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3068: LORD -- the proper name of the God of Israel

of Hosts,
צְבָאוֹת֙ (ṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ)
Noun - common plural
Strong's 6635: A mass of persons, reg, organized for, war, a campaign

the God
אֱלֹהֵ֣י (’ĕ·lō·hê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

of Israel,
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל (yiś·rā·’êl)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3478: Israel -- 'God strives', another name of Jacob and his desc

says:
אָמַ֞ר (’ā·mar)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“Behold,
הִנְנִ֧י (hin·nî)
Interjection | first person common singular
Strong's 2005: Lo! behold!

I will feed
מַאֲכִילָ֛ם (ma·’ă·ḵî·lām)
Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 398: To eat

this
הַזֶּ֖ה (haz·zeh)
Article | Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 2088: This, that

people
הָעָ֥ם (hā·‘ām)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

wormwood
לַֽעֲנָ֑ה (la·‘ă·nāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 3939: Wormwood

and give them poisoned
רֹֽאשׁ׃ (rōš)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7219: A poisonous plant, the poppy, poison

water
מֵי־ (mê-)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 4325: Water, juice, urine, semen

to drink.
וְהִשְׁקִיתִ֖ים (wə·hiš·qî·ṯîm)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - first person common singular | third person masculine plural
Strong's 8248: To quaff, to irrigate, furnish a, potion to


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies (Jer.)
Jeremiah 9:14
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