Jeremiah Grieves for His People
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;1
my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
bIs her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and cwith their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 dFor the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no ebalm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?
1 2 Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of ftears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 3 Oh that I had in the desert
a travelers’ lodging place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all gadulterers,
a company of treacherous men.
3 They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong4 in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, declares the Lord.
4 Let everyone hbeware of his neighbor,
and put no trust in any brother,
for every brother is a deceiver,
and every neighbor goes about as a islanderer.
5 Everyone deceives his neighbor,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.
6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Behold, I will jrefine them and test them,
for what else can I do, because of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks deceitfully;
with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,
but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.
9 kShall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?
10 “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
both the lbirds of the air and the beasts
have fled and are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a mheap of ruins,
a lair of njackals,
and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hhypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither ienter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.1 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell2 as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you, jblind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is kbound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar lthat makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by mhim who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by nheaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you otithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the pweightier matters of the law: qjustice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of rgreed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like swhitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all tuncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in ushedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 vFill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you wbrood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your xsynagogues and ypersecute from town to town, 35 so that zon you may come all the arighteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous bAbel to the blood of cZechariah the son of Barachiah,3 whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Lament over Jerusalem
37 d“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that ekills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a fhen gathers her brood under her wings, and gyou were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you hdesolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, i‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
