Jeremiah 8:14-22

14Why are we sitting still [the people wonder]? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter the fortified cities And let us die there, For the Lord our God has decreed our ruin And given us bitter and poisonous water to drink, Because we have sinned against the Lord.

15We waited for peace and salvation, but no good came, And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!

16The snorting of [Nebuchadnezzar’s] horses is heard from Dan [on Palestine’s northern border]. At the sound of the neighing of his strong stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and devour the land and all that is in it, The city and those who live in it.

17“For behold, I am sending serpents among you, Vipers which cannot be charmed, And they will bite you,” says the Lord.

18Oh, that I (Jeremiah) could find comfort from my sorrow [for my grief is beyond healing], My heart is sick and faint within me!

19Behold, [hear the sound of] the cry of the daughter of my people from the distant land [of Babylon]: “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King within her?” [But the Lord answers] “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images and with foreign idols?”

20“The harvest is past, the summer has ended and the gathering of fruit is over, But we are not saved,” [comes the voice of the people again].

21For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I (Jeremiah) am broken; I mourn, anxiety has gripped me.

22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the [spiritual] health of the daughter of my people been restored?