Jeremiah 15:18

We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages.

David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot. All the people who were with him each covered his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.

Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!

The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?

Why do you cry over your injury? Your pain is incurable. For the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.

Zion spreads out her hands. There is no one to comfort her. Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries. Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.

I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.

But you have utterly rejected us. You are very angry against us.

There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?

He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat from his own vine, and everyone from his own fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern;

Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’

Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.

We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor.

Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected them.”

For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you! Even they have cried aloud after you! Don’t believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt. You use many medicines in vain. There is no healing for you.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife?

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.

“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel,

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.

The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

I will cut off the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion.

Woe is me because of my injury! My wound is serious; but I said, “Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.”

My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest. She has uttered her voice against me. Therefore I have hated her.

What will you say, when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.

“You shall say this word to them: “ ‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day. Everyone mocks me.

For Yahweh says, “Your hurt is incurable. Your wound is grievous.

There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines.

All your lovers have forgotten you. They don’t seek you. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.

He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.

It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.

So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me.

So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.

Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, ‘I don’t know him,’ I would be like you, a liar. But I know him and keep his word.

“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But I came to this time for this cause.

I don’t speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen. But that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’

Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel.

For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.

that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.

Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.

These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by Yahweh’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Moses said to Yahweh, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”

All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!

Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,

He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how long?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.

Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”

Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.