8:1 The Lord says, “When that time comes,1 the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. 8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the stars.2 These are things they3 adored and served, things that they paid allegiance to,4 sought guidance from, and worshiped. The bones of these people5 will never be gathered back up and reburied. They will be like manure that is used to fertilize the ground.6 8:3 However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who are left alive may be, they will wish they had died rather than lived,”7 says the Lord who rules over all.8
Willful Disregard of God Will Lead to Destruction
“Tell them, ‘The Lord says,
Don’t people get back up when they fall down?
Don’t they turn around when they go the wrong way?10
8:5 Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem11
keep turning away from me in continual apostasy?
They hold fast to their mistaken beliefs.12
They refuse to turn back to me.13
8:6 I have listened to them very carefully,14
but they do not say what is right.
None of them feels sorry for the evil he has done.
None of them asks, “What have I done wrong?”15
All of them follow their own wayward course16
like a horse charging recklessly into battle.
8:7 Even the stork knows
when it is time to move on.17
And the turtledove, swallow, and crane18
follow the normal times for their migration.
But my people pay no heed to19
what I, the Lord, require of them.20
8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!
We have the law of the Lord”?
The truth is,21 those who teach it22 have used their writings
to make it say what it does not really mean.23
8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment.24
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what wisdom do they really have?
8:1025 So I will give their wives to other men
and their fields to new owners.
That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,
all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.
Prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
8:11 They offer only superficial help
for the hurt my dear people26 have suffered.27
They say, “Everything will be all right!”
But everything is not all right!28
8:12 Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?
No, they are not at all ashamed.
They do not even know how to blush!
So they will die just like others have died.29
They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,
says the Lord.
8:13 I will take away their harvests,30 says the Lord.
There will be no grapes on their vines.
There will be no figs on their fig trees.
Even the leaves on their trees will wither.
The crops that I gave them will be taken away.’”31
Jeremiah Laments over the Coming Destruction
“Why are we just sitting here?
Let us gather together inside the fortified cities.33
Let us at least die fighting there,34
since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.
He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment35
because we have sinned against him.36
8:15 We hoped for peace, but nothing good has come of it.
We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror.37
8:16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses
is already being heard in the city of Dan.
The sound of the neighing of his stallions
causes the whole land to tremble with fear.
They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!
They are coming to destroy38 the cities and everyone who lives in them!”
“Yes indeed,40 I am sending an enemy against you
that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away.41
And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.”42
“There is no cure44 for my grief!
I am sick at heart.
8:19 I hear my dear people45 crying out46
throughout the length and breadth of the land.47
They are crying, ‘The Lord is in Zion, isn’t he?
Her divine King48 is still there, isn’t he?’
(The Lord would answer,49
‘Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,
with their worthless foreign idols?’)50
8:20 They cry,51 ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over,52
and still we have not been delivered.’
8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people53 are being crushed.54
I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay.55
8:22 There is still healing lotion56 available in Gilead, isn’t there?
There are still doctors there, aren’t there?57
Why then have my dear people58
not been restored to health?59