LEB JER section

Yahweh’s Lament

21 “Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down,
- I mourn, horror has seized me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
- Is there no healer there?
Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

9 [fn] Oh that my head were waters ,[fn]
- and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night,
- for the slain of the daughter of my people.
2 Oh that I had[fn] in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers,
- that I may leave my people and go from them,
for all of them are adulterers,
- a band of traitors.
3 And they bend their tongue like their bow,
- for falsehood and not truth is superior in the land,
for they go forth[fn] from evil to evil,
- and they do not know me,” declares[fn] Yahweh.
NOTNOT

A Nation Characterized by Deceit

4 “Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor,
- and you must not trust in any brother,
for everyone surely betrays,
- and every neighbor goes about with slander.
5 And everyone deceives his neighbor,
- and they do not speak the truth,
they have taught their tongues[fn] to speak lies,[fn]
- they are tired from going astray.
6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit,
- upon[fn] deceit they refuse to know me,” declares[fn] Yahweh.
NOTNOT

7 Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts:

“Look, I am about to refine them,
- and I will test them,
for what else can I do,
- because of the presence[fn] of the daughter of my people?
8 Their tongue is a murderous arrow,
- it speaks deceit.
With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor,
- but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush.
9 Because of these things shall I not punish them?” declares[fn] Yahweh,
“On a nation that is like this shall I not take revenge?
10 For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing,
- and for the pastures of the desert a lament,
because they are laid waste so that no man passes through.
- And the sounds[fn] of cattle are not heard,
from the birds[fn] of heaven to the animals[fn]
- they have fled, they are gone.
11 And I will make Jerusalem as heaps of ruins, a lair of jackals,
- and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitants .[fn]
12 Who is the wise man that can understand this?
- And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it?
Why is the land destroyed?
- It is laid waste like the desert[fn] so that no one passes through.”
NOTNOT

The Nation is Judged by Yahweh

13 And Yahweh said, “Because of their forsaking my law that I set ⌊before⌋[fn] them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it, 14 but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors[fn] taught them.” 15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Look, I am feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison, 16 and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors,[fn] and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end.”

17 Thus says Yahweh of hosts:

“Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come,
- and for the skillful women, so that they come.
18 And let them hasten,
- and let them lift up wailing over us,
so that our eyes may melt with tears,
- and our eyelids may flow with water.
19 For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion,
- ‘How we are devastated!
We are very ashamed because we have left the land,
- because they have overthrown our dwelling places.’
20 For hear, O women, the word of Yahweh,
- and let your ear receive the word of his mouth,
and teach your daughters a lamentation,
- and each woman her neighbor a lament.
21 For death has come into our windows,
- it has entered into our fortresses,
to cut off the children[fn] from the streets,[fn]
- the young men from the public squares.
NOTNOT

22 Speak, ‘thus ⌊declares⌋[fn] Yahweh:

“The dead body of the human will fall
- like dung upon the surface of the field,
and like cut grain behind the reaper,
- and there is no one who gathers.” ’ ”
NOTNOT

The Way of the Nations

25 “Look, days are coming,” ⌊declares⌋[fn] Yahweh, “and I will call into account all those who are circumcised in the foreskin: 26 Egypt, Judah, and Edom, and the ⌊Ammonites⌋,[fn] and Moab, and all those who are trimmed to the side, those who live in the desert,[fn] for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

10 Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says Yahweh:

“You must not learn the way of the nations,
- and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens,
- for the nations are dismayed by them.
3 For the statutes of the peoples are vanity,
- for it is a tree cut down from the forest,
- the work of the hands of a craftsman with the tool.
4 He decorates it with silver and gold,
- they strengthen it with nails and hammers,
- so that it does not stagger.
5 They are like scarecrows[fn] in a cucumber field,
- they cannot speak.
Indeed, they must be carried,
- for they cannot march.
You must not be afraid of them,
- for they cannot do evil;
furthermore, to do good is not in them.”
6 There is none like you, O Yahweh,
- you are great and your name is great in might.
7 Who would not revere you, O king of the nations?
- For you it is fitting.
For among all the wise men of the nations,
- and in all their kingdoms,[fn]
- there is none like you.
8 At the same time[fn] they are stupid and foolish,
- in the instruction of idols, it is wood.
9 Silver beaten from Tarshish is brought,
- and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the craftsman and the hands of the goldsmith.
Blue and purple are their clothing,
- all of them are the work of skillful people.
10 But Yahweh is the true God,
- he is the living God,
- and an everlasting king .[fn]
Because of his wrath the earth quakes,
- and the nations cannot endure his anger.
NOTNOT

11 “⌊Thus⌋[fn] you shall say to them,

‘Gods who did not make the heavens and the earth
- will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.
12 He is the maker of the earth by his power,
- who created the world by his wisdom,
- and by his understanding he stretched out heaven.
13 When he utters his voice[fn] there is a noise of water in the heavens,
- and he causes the mist to rise from the ends[fn] of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
- and he causes the wind to go out from his storehouses.
14 Everyone[fn] is stupid, without knowledge ,[fn]
- every goldsmith is ashamed by his divine image,
for his cast image is an illusion,
- and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, a work of mockery,
- at the time of their punishment, they will perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like these,
- for he is the creator of everything,
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance,
- Yahweh of hosts is his name.
17 Gather your bundle from the ground,
- you who live under the siege.’ ”
NOTNOT

18 For thus says Yahweh,

“Look, I am about to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,
- and I will bring distress to them, so that they may feel it.”
NOTNOT

The Nation Accepts Its Judgment

19 Woe to me, because of my wound.
- My wound is incurable.
But I said, “Surely this is my sickness,
- and I must bear it.”
20 My tent is devastated,
- and all my tent cords are torn.
My children have gone out from me,
- and they are not.
There is no one who pitches my tent again,
- or one who puts up my tent curtains.
21 For the shepherds have become stupid,
- they do not seek Yahweh.
Therefore[fn] they do not have insight,
- and all of their flock are scattered.
22 Listen, news:[fn]
Look, it is coming,
- a great roar from the land of the north,
to make the cities of Judah a desolation,
- a lair of jackals.
23 I know, O Yahweh, that to the human is not his own way,
- nor to a person is the walking and the directing of his own step.
24 Chastise[fn] me, O Yahweh, but in moderation,
- not in your anger, lest you eradicate me.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
- and on the peoples that do not call on your name,
for they have devoured Jacob,
- they have devoured and consumed him,
- and they have caused his settlement to be desolate.

9:? Jeremiah 9:1–26 in the English Bible is 8:23–9:25 in the Hebrew Bible

9:? Literally “Who he gives my head waters”

9:? Literally “Who he gives me”

9:? Or “proceed”

9:? Literally “a declaration of”

9:? Hebrew “tongue”

9:? Hebrew “lie”

9:? Or “through”

9:? Literally “a declaration of”

9:7 Literally “faces”

9:7 Literally “a declaration of”

9:7 Hebrew “sound”

9:7 Hebrew “bird”

9:7 Hebrew “animal”

9:7 Literally “from no inhabitant”

9:7 Or “wilderness”

9:13 Literally “to the face of”

9:14 Or “fathers”

9:16 Or “fathers”

9:17 Hebrew “child”

9:17 Hebrew “street”

9:22 Literally “a declaration of”

9:23 Literally “But it”

9:23 Literally “a declaration of”

9:25 Literally “a declaration of”

9:26 Literally “sons/children of Ammon”

9:26 Or “wilderness”

10:2 Hebrew “scarecrow”

10:2 Hebrew “kingdom”

10:2 Literally “And in one”

10:2 Literally “a king of eternity”

10:11 Literally “Like this”

10:11 Literally “At the voice of his giving”

10:11 Hebrew “end”

10:11 Literally “All humankind”

10:11 Literally “from knowledge”

10:18 Literally “Unto thus”

10:18 Or “a report”

10:18 Or “Discipline”

LEB by section JER 8:21

Yahweh’s Lament