8 “ ‘How can you say, “We are wise because we have the word of the Lord,”

when your teachers have twisted it by writing lies?

9 These wise teachers will fall

into the trap of their own foolishness,

for they have rejected the word of the Lord.

Are they so wise after all?

10 I will give their wives to others

and their farms to strangers.

From the least to the greatest,

their lives are ruled by greed.

Yes, even my prophets and priests are like that.

They are all frauds.

11 They offer superficial treatments

for my people’s mortal wound.

They give assurances of peace

when there is no peace.

12 Are they ashamed of these disgusting actions?

Not at all—they don’t even know how to blush!

Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered.

They will be brought down when I punish them,

says the Lord.

13 I will surely consume them.

There will be no more harvests of figs and grapes.

Their fruit trees will all die.

Whatever I gave them will soon be gone.

I, the Lord, have spoken!’

14 “Then the people will say,

‘Why should we wait here to die?

Come, let’s go to the fortified towns and die there.

For the Lord our God has decreed our destruction

and has given us a cup of poison to drink

because we sinned against the Lord.

15 We hoped for peace, but no peace came.

We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.’