Jeremiah 8:4–13

The Lord Punishes His Sinful People

⁴“Jeremiah, tell them, ‘The Lord says,

“ ‘ “When people fall down, don’t they get up again?

When someone turns away, doesn’t he come back?

⁵Then why have the people of Jerusalem turned away from me?

Why do they always turn away?

They keep on telling lies.

They refuse to come back to me.

⁶I have listened carefully.

But they do not say what is right.

They refuse to turn away from their sins.

No one says, ‘What have I done?’

All of them go their own way.

They are like horses charging into battle.

⁷Storks know when to fly south.

So do doves, swifts and thrushes.

But my people do not know

what I require them to do.

⁸“ ‘ “How can you people say, ‘We are wise.

We have the law of the Lord’?

Actually, the teachers of the law have told lies about it.

Their pens have not written what is true.

⁹Those who think they are wise will be put to shame.

They will become terrified. They will be trapped.

They have not accepted my message.

So what kind of wisdom do they have?

¹⁰I will give their wives to other men.

I will give their fields to new owners.

Everyone wants to get richer and richer,

from the least important of them to the most important.

Prophets and priests alike

try to fool everyone they can.

¹¹They bandage the wounds of my people

as if they were not very deep.

‘Peace, peace,’ they say.

But there isn’t any peace.

¹²Are they ashamed of their hateful actions?

No. They do not feel any shame at all.

They do not even know how to blush.

So they will fall like others who have already fallen.

They will be brought down when I punish them,”

says the Lord.

¹³“ ‘ “I will take away their harvest,”

announces the Lord.

“There will not be any grapes on the vines.

The trees will not bear any figs.

The leaves on the trees will dry up.

What I have given them

will be taken away from them.” ’ ”