Jeremiah 8:4–13

Yahweh Questions His People

⁴“And you shall say to them, ‘Thus asks^d Yahweh:

“Do men fall and not stand up?

If one turns away does he not return?

⁵Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in enduring apostasy?

They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.^e

⁶I have listened attentively,

and I have listened.

They do not speak honestly,

there is no man who regrets his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’

All of them are turning to their ways of running,

like a horse plunging into battle.

⁷Even the stork in heaven knows its appointed time,

and the turtledove, and the swallow, and the song bird,

they observe the time of their coming.

But my people do not know the ordinance^f of Yahweh.

⁸How can you say, ‘We are wise and the law of Yahweh is with us’?

Look, surely the lying stylus of the scribes^g has made it a lie.

⁹The wise will be put to shame,

they will be dismayed,

and they will get taken.

Look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh,

and what is wisdom to them?

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to others,

their fields to conquerors,

because from the smallest to the greatest,

all of them make profit for unlawful gain,

from prophet to priest,

all of them practice deceit.

¹¹And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly,

saying,^h ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing?

What’s worse,ⁱ they were not ashamed at all,

and they did not know to feel humiliated.

Therefore^j they will fall among those who fall;

at the time of their punishment they will stumble,” says Yahweh.

¹³“I will take away their harvest,”^k declares^l Yahweh.

“There are no grapes on the vine,

and there are no figs on the fig tree,

and the leaves wither,

and what I gave to them passed over them.” ’ ”