Jer 8, Jer 16 | ESV | STEP | At that time , declares the Lord , the bones of the kings of Judah , the bones of its officials , the bones of the priests , the bones of the prophets , and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs .

1 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread ^abefore the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^bAnd they shall not be gathered or buried. ^cThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 ^dDeath shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^ein all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^fWhen men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people ^gturned away
in perpetual ^hbacksliding?
ⁱThey hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 ^jI have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
^klike a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and ^lthe turtledove, ^mswallow, and crane ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain}
keep the time of their coming,
^obut my people know not
the rules ^{▼▼Or just decrees} of the Lord.
8 ^q“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 ^rThe wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed ^sand taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 ^tTherefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone ^uis greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed ^vthe wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, ^wthey were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
^xTherefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are ^yno grapes on the vine,
^znor figs on the fig tree;
^aaeven the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.” ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
14 Why do we sit still?
^acGather together; ^adlet us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has ^aegiven us ^afpoisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 ^agWe looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 ^ah“The snorting of their horses is heard ^aifrom Dan;
at the sound of the neighing ^ajof their stallions
^akthe whole land quakes.
They come ^aland devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you ^amserpents,
adders ^anthat cannot be charmed,
^aoand they shall bite you,”

declares the Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; ^{▼▼Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
^aqmy heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from ^arthe length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
^asIs her King not in her?”
^at“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of ^authe daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
^avI mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no ^awbalm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?

Jeremiah 16

Famine, Sword, and Death

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4 ^axThey shall die of deadly diseases. ^ayThey shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^azThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^baThey shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^bband their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

5 “For thus says the Lord: ^bcDo not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land. ^bdThey shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^becut himself ^bfor make himself bald for them. 7 No one shall ^bgbreak bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^bhBehold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^bi‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ^bj‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^bkhave gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because ^blyou have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^bmevery one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore ^bnI will hurl you out of this land into ^boa land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^bpand there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

14 ^bq“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^br‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but ^bs‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^btout of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^buI will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

16 “Behold, ^bvI am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^bwof the clefts of the rocks. 17 For ^bxmy eyes are on all their ways. ^byThey are not hidden from me, ^bznor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 18 But first ^caI will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^cbhave filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

19 ^ccO Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
^cdmy refuge in the day of trouble,
^ceto you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
^cfworthless things in which there is no profit.
20 Can man make for himself ^cggods?
Such are not gods!”
21 “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^chmy name is the Lord.”