Jeremiah 8:14-22

14Why 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.

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

16The 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.

18You who are my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

19Listen 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 aroused my anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

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

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

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