[Is] Israel a slave? Or {a slave born in a house}? Why has he become plunder?

And now {why do you go} the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor? And {why do you go} the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the {Euphrates}?

Why do you complain to me? All of you have {rebelled against me}," {declares} Yahweh.

O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We roam about freely, we will not come again to you'?

{And then}, when you [people] say, 'Why has Yahweh our God done all of these [things] to us?' Then you will say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in {a land that does not belong to you}.'

Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away [in] enduring apostasy? They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.

Why [are] we sitting? Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us perish there, for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish, and has provided drink for us, water of poison, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, 'Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?' Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?"

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Who [is] the wise man that can understand this? And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed? It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through."

You [will be] in the right, Yahweh, when I complain to you. Even so, let me speak [my] claims with you. Why does [the] way of [the] wicked succeed? All those who deal treacherously with treachery are at ease.

And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these [things] happened to me?' Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered; your heels have endured violence.

[You are] the hope of Israel, its savior in time of distress. Why should you be like an alien in the land, or like a traveler who spreads out [his tent] to spend the night?

Why should you be like a confused man, like a warrior [who] is not able to help? Yet you [are] in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called upon us. You must not leave us!

Have you completely rejected Judah? Or has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We hope for peace, but there is no good, and for a time of healing, but look, there is terror.

Why is my pain endless, and my wound incurable? It refuses to become healed. Truly you are to me like a deceitful [brook], waters [that] are not trustworthy.

{And then} when you tell this people all these words and they ask you, '{Why} has Yahweh pronounced against us all this great evil, and what [is] our iniquity, and what [is] our sin that we have sinned against Yahweh our God?'

{Why} did I come out from [the] womb, to see toil, and sorrow, and [to] {end my days in shame}?

And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, '{Why} has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?'

[Is] this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel? Or a vessel [in which] there is no delight? Why are he and his offspring thrown far, and cast away to the land that they do not know?"

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, {saying}, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, {without} inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

Why should you die--you and your people--by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

And you must not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a site of ruins?

and so then why have you not rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite who exhibits the behavior of a prophet for you?

Ask please and see whether a male can bear a child. Why [do] I see every strong man [with] his hands on his loins like a woman giving birth? And [why] are all [their] faces changed to paleness?

Why do you cry because of your wound? Your pain [is] incurable. Because of the greatness of your guilt--your sins are vast-- I have done these [things] to you.

where Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, {saying}, "Why [are] you prophesying, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it,

{But then} at the coming up against the land of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, then we said, 'Come and let us go [to] Jerusalem {before} the army of the Chaldeans, and {before} the army of the Arameans.' That is why we are living in Jerusalem."

And concerning Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, you shall say, 'Thus says Yahweh, "You have burned this scroll, {saying}, 'Why have you written in it, {saying}, "The king of Babylon will certainly come and he will destroy this land, and he will cause to disappear from it humankind and animals"?'"

Then Johanan the son of Kareah said to Gedaliah in secrecy at Mizpah, {saying}, "Please let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and {nobody} will know. Why should he kill you, so that all of Judah who are gathered to you will be scattered, and the remnant of Judah will perish?"

So then, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Why [are] you doing great harm to {yourselves}, to cut off for yourselves man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Judah, to not leave over for yourselves a remnant,

Why do I see them terrified? [They are] turning back and their warriors are beaten down. And they have fled [to] a place of refuge and they do not turn [back]. Terror [is] from all around," {declares} Yahweh.

Why are your bulls defeated? He did not stand because Yahweh thrust him down.

Concerning the {Ammonites}: Thus says Yahweh, "Are there no sons for Israel? Or is there no heir for him? Why has Milcom taken possession of Gad, and his people dwelled in its towns?

Why do you boast in [your] valleys? Your valleys [are] ebbing. O unfaithful daughter, who trusted in her treasures, [who said], 'Who will come against me?'