Jer 8, Jer 18 | 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 18

The Potter and the Clay

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to ^axthe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to ^aythe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was ^azspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^bahe reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, ^bbcan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^bcBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^bdpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^beturns from its evil, ^bfI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^bgbuild and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^bhReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^biamend your ways and your deeds.’

12 “But they say, ^bj‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ^bkthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
^blAsk among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done ^bma very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion? ^{▼▼Hebrew of the field}
Do the mountain waters run dry, ^{▼▼Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up}
the cold flowing streams?
15 ^bpBut my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to ^bqfalse gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
^brin the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
^bsnot the highway,
16 making their land ^bta horror,
a thing ^buto be hissed at forever.
^bvEveryone who passes by it is horrified
^bwand shakes his head.
17 ^bxLike the east wind ^byI will scatter them
before the enemy.
^bzI will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, ^ca“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^cbfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^ccCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^cdlisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^ceShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^cfthey have dug a pit for my life.
^cgRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^chdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^ciand widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^cjMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^ckthey have dug a pit to take me
^cland laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^cmyou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
^cnForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.