Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he laid waste?

Why will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.

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

Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

Why dost thou go about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these things to us? then shalt thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Why then hath 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 hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall 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 distant 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 strange vanities?

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

Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me speak with thee of thy judgments: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? why are they all happy that deal very treacherously?

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

O the hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?

Why shouldst thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed 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!

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why hath 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 was I brought into the world 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 hath the LORD done thus to 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 seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

Why hast thou 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 ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

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

Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself a prophet to you?

Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth 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 criest thou for thy affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thy iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things to thee.

For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, Why dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

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

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

Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and look not back: for fear was on all sides, saith the LORD.

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

Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

Why gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come to me?