¹⁷ Eternal One: Look, I have released an army of serpents against you;
        they slither like vipers across the land.
    There is no hope of charming them.
        There is no escape from their deadly bite.

Jeremiah: ¹⁸ There is no cure for my grief.
        My heart breaks for what I see and hear.^[a]
19     Listen, my Lord, don’t You hear the daughter of our people weeping, crying out to You from exile?
    “Is the Eternal no longer in Zion? Does her King no longer reside there?”

Eternal One: But Jeremiah, why have they provoked Me with their dark and evil practices?
        Why do they worship these handcrafted idols, these worthless gods?