Through My Bible

Sin and Punishment

 ⁴ "Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says:
       " 'When men fall down, do they not get up?
       When a man turns away, does he not return?

 ⁵ Why then have these people turned away?
       Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
       They cling to deceit;
       they refuse to return.

 ⁶ I have listened attentively,
       but they do not say what is right.
       No one repents of his wickedness,
       saying, "What have I done?"
       Each pursues his own course
       like a horse charging into battle.

 ⁷ Even the stork in the sky
       knows her appointed seasons,
       and the dove, the swift and the thrush
       observe the time of their migration.
       But my people do not know
       the requirements of the LORD.

 ⁸ " 'How can you say, "We are wise,
       for we have the law of the LORD,"
       when actually the lying pen of the scribes
       has handled it falsely?

 ⁹ The wise will be put to shame;
       they will be dismayed and trapped.
       Since they have rejected the word of the LORD,
       what kind of wisdom do they have?

 ¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to other men
       and their fields to new owners.
       From the least to the greatest,
       all are greedy for gain;
       prophets and priests alike,
       all practice deceit.

 ¹¹ They dress the wound of my people
       as though it were not serious.
       "Peace, peace," they say,
       when there is no peace.

 ¹² Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
       No, they have no shame at all;
       they do not even know how to blush.
       So they will fall among the fallen;
       they will be brought down when they are punished,
       says the LORD.

 ¹³ " 'I will take away their harvest,
       declares the LORD.
       There will be no grapes on the vine.
       There will be no figs on the tree,
       and their leaves will wither.
       What I have given them
       will be taken from them. ^[a] ' "

 ¹⁴ "Why are we sitting here?
       Gather together!
       Let us flee to the fortified cities
       and perish there!
       For the LORD our God has doomed us to perish
       and given us poisoned water to drink,
       because we have sinned against him.

 ¹⁵ We hoped for peace
       but no good has come,
       for a time of healing
       but there was only terror.

 ¹⁶ The snorting of the enemy's horses
       is heard from Dan;
       at the neighing of their stallions
       the whole land trembles.
       They have come to devour
       the land and everything in it,
       the city and all who live there."

 ¹⁷ "See, I will send venomous snakes among you,
       vipers that cannot be charmed,
       and they will bite you,"
       declares the LORD.

 ¹⁸ O my Comforter ^[b] in sorrow,
       my heart is faint within me.

 ¹⁹ Listen to the cry of my people
       from a land far away:
       "Is the LORD not in Zion?
       Is her King no longer there?"
       "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
       with their worthless foreign idols?"

 ²⁰ "The harvest is past,
       the summer has ended,
       and we are not saved."

 ²¹ Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
       I mourn, and horror grips me.

 ²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
       Is there no physician there?
       Why then is there no healing
       for the wound of my people?

Jeremiah 9

 ¹ Oh, that my head were a spring of water
       and my eyes a fountain of tears!
       I would weep day and night
       for the slain of my people.

 ² Oh, that I had in the desert
       a lodging place for travelers,
       so that I might leave my people
       and go away from them;
       for they are all adulterers,
       a crowd of unfaithful people.

 ³ "They make ready their tongue
       like a bow, to shoot lies;
       it is not by truth
       that they triumph ^[c] in the land.
       They go from one sin to another;
       they do not acknowledge me,"
       declares the LORD.

 ⁴ "Beware of your friends;
       do not trust your brothers.
       For every brother is a deceiver, ^[d]
       and every friend a slanderer.

 ⁵ Friend deceives friend,
       and no one speaks the truth.
       They have taught their tongues to lie;
       they weary themselves with sinning.

 ⁶ You ^[e] live in the midst of deception;
       in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
       declares the LORD.

 ⁷ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
       "See, I will refine and test them,
       for what else can I do
       because of the sin of my people?

 ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
       it speaks with deceit.
       With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
       but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

 ⁹ Should I not punish them for this?"
       declares the LORD.
       "Should I not avenge myself
       on such a nation as this?"

 ¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains
       and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures.
       They are desolate and untraveled,
       and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
       The birds of the air have fled
       and the animals are gone.

 ¹¹ "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
       a haunt of jackals;
       and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
       so no one can live there."

 ¹² What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

 ¹³ The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. ¹⁴ Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them." ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them."

 ¹⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says:
       "Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
       send for the most skillful of them.

 ¹⁸ Let them come quickly
       and wail over us
       till our eyes overflow with tears
       and water streams from our eyelids.

 ¹⁹ The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
       'How ruined we are!
       How great is our shame!
       We must leave our land
       because our houses are in ruins.' "

 ²⁰ Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD;
       open your ears to the words of his mouth.
       Teach your daughters how to wail;
       teach one another a lament.

 ²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows
       and has entered our fortresses;
       it has cut off the children from the streets
       and the young men from the public squares.

 ²² Say, "This is what the LORD declares:
       " 'The dead bodies of men will lie
       like refuse on the open field,
       like cut grain behind the reaper,
       with no one to gather them.' "

Footnotes:

1. Jeremiah 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
2. Jeremiah 8:18 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
3. Jeremiah 9:3 Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth
4. Jeremiah 9:4 Or a deceiving Jacob
5. Jeremiah 9:6 That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular)