Jeremiah 8:4–13

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

When men fall, do they not rise again?

If one turns away, does he not return?

⁵Why then has this people turned away

in perpetual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit,

they refuse to return.

⁶I have given heed and listened,

but they have not spoken aright;

no man repents of his wickedness,

saying, ‘What have I done?’

Every one turns to his own course,

like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

⁷Even the stork in the heavens

knows her times;

and the turtledove, swallow, and crane^j

keep the time of their coming;

but my people know not

the ordinance of the Lord.

⁸“How can you say, ‘We are wise,

and the law of the Lord is with us’?

But, behold, the false pen of the scribes

has made it into a lie.

⁹The wise men shall be put to shame,

they shall be dismayed and taken;

lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord,

and what wisdom is in them?

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to others

and their fields to conquerors,

because from the least to the greatest

every one is greedy for unjust gain;

from prophet to priest

every one deals falsely.

¹¹They have healed the wound of my people lightly,

saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, they were not at all ashamed;

they did not know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;

when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.

¹³When I would gather them, says the Lord,

there are no grapes on the vine,

nor figs on the fig tree;

even the leaves are withered,

and what I gave them has passed away from them.”^k