17. ‘See, I will send venomous snakes among you,vipers that cannot be charmed,and they will bite you,’declares the Lord.
18. You who are my Comforter in sorrow,my heart is faint within me.
19. Listen to the cry of my peoplefrom 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.’
21. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;I mourn, and horror grips me.
22. Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?Why then is there no healingfor the wound of my people?