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!
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!
- BSB 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.
- 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 5:22But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
- Jer 8:15We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
- 1 Th 5:3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
- Jer 6:30Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.
- Jer 12:8Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.
- Job 30:26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
- Jer 30:13There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.
- Ps 78:59When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
- 2 Kgs 17:19–20Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
- Zech 11:8–9Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul lothed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
- Lam 2:13What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
- Jer 15:1Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
- 2 Chr 36:16But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
- Ps 89:38But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Jer 7:29Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
- Lam 4:17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
- Ps 80:12–13Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
- Rom 11:1–6I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of 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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