Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he plundered?

Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me, says the LORD.

O generation, see you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto you?

Why beautify your way to seek love? therefore have you also taught the wicked ones your ways.

Why gad you about so much to change your way? you also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall you answer them, Like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign idols?

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for why is the land perished and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?

Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

And if you say in your heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels made bare.

O the hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?

Why should you be as a man confused, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you 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!

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a deceitful brook, and as waters that fail?

And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has the LORD done thus unto this great city?

Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and are cast into a land which they know not?

Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city be laid waste?

Now therefore why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?

Ask you now, and see whether a man does travail with child? why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

Why cry you over your affliction? your sorrow is incurable for the multitude of your iniquity: because your sins were increased, I have done these things unto you.

For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus says the LORD; You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written in it, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and beast?

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: why should he slay you, that all the Jews who are gathered unto you should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?

Therefore now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Why commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;

Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled in haste, and look not back: for fear was all around, says the LORD.

Why are your valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.

Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD; Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

Why boast yourself in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come against me?