Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of healing, but there was only terror.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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!
- KJV Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
- NKJV Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.
- NASB ¶Have You completely rejected Judah? Or have You loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited for peace, but nothing good came; And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!
- NLT Lord, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you really hate Jerusalem? Why have you wounded us past all hope of healing? We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people cry out, asking whether God has utterly rejected Judah and loathed Zion, since they hoped for peace and healing but found only terror. It voices the anguish of feeling forsaken under God's chastening hand.
Overview
This lament wrestles honestly with the apparent finality of God's judgment, asking why He has wounded them without healing. Their dashed hopes for peace expose the bitterness of discipline. Yet such honest crying out to God is itself a mark of faith that refuses to let go, the same faith that finds true and lasting healing in the wounds of Christ (Isaiah 53:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Lam 5:22unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
- Jer 8:15We hoped for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
- 1 Th 5:3While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Jer 6:30They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
- Jer 12:8My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against Me; therefore I hate her.
- Job 30:26But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.
- Jer 30:13There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.
- Ps 78:59On hearing it, God was furious and rejected Israel completely.
- 2 Kgs 17:19–20and even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced.
- Zech 11:8–9And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me.
- Lam 2:13What can I say for you? To what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? To what can I liken you, that I may console you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can ever heal you?
- Jer 15:1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
- 2 Chr 36:16But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.
- Ps 89:38Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
- Jer 7:29Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
- Lam 4:17All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.
- Ps 80:12–13Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
- Rom 11:1–6I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 14:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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