Sin and Treachery

4  “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:

yWhen men fall, do they not rise again?

If one turns away, does he not return?

5  Why then has this people zturned away

in perpetual abacksliding?

bThey hold fast to deceit;

they refuse to return.

6  cI have paid attention and listened,

but they have not spoken rightly;

no man relents of his evil,

saying, ‘What have I done?’

Everyone turns to his own course,

dlike a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7  Even the stork in the heavens

knows her times,

and ethe turtledove, fswallow, and crane1

keep the time of their coming,

gbut my people know not

the rules2 of the Lord.

8  h“How can you say, ‘We are wise,

and the law of the Lord is with us’?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes

has made it into a lie.

9  iThe wise men shall be put to shame;

they shall be dismayed jand taken;

behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,

so what wisdom is in them?

10  kTherefore I will give their wives to others

and their fields to conquerors,

because from the least to the greatest

everyone lis greedy for unjust gain;

from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

11  They have healed mthe wound of my people lightly,

saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.

12  Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, nthey were not at all ashamed;

they did not know how to blush.

oTherefore they shall fall among the fallen;

when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.