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?

5  Why then has this people turned away

in perpetual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit;

they refuse to return.

6  I 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,

like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7  ^sEven the stork in the heavens

knows her times,

and the turtledove, swallow, and crane¹

keep the time of their coming,

but my people know not

the rules² of the Lord.

8  “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  The wise men shall be put to shame;

they shall be dismayed and taken;

behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,

so what wisdom is in them?

10  Therefore I will give ^ttheir wives to others

and their fields to conquerors,

because ^ufrom the least to the greatest

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

11  ^vThey have healed the wound of my people lightly,

^wsaying, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.

12  ^xWere 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.

13  ^yWhen I would gather them, declares 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.”³

14  Why do we sit still?

Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities

and perish there,

for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish

and has ^zgiven us poisoned water to drink,

because we have sinned against the Lord.

15  ^aWe looked for peace, but no good came;

for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

16  “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;

at the sound of the neighing of their stallions

the whole land quakes.

They come and devour the land and all that fills it,

the city and those who dwell in it.

17  For behold, I am sending among you serpents,

adders that cannot be charmed,

and they shall bite you,”

declares the Lord.

18  My joy is gone; grief is upon me;⁴

my heart is sick within me.

19  Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people

from the length and breadth of the land:

“Is the Lord not in Zion?

^bIs her King not in her?”

“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images

and ^cwith their foreign idols?”

20  “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

and we are not saved.”

21  ^dFor the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

22  Is there no ^ebalm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?

9  ¹ Oh that my head were waters,

and my eyes a fountain of ^ftears,

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2  ² Oh that I had in the desert

a travelers’ lodging place,

that I might leave my people

and go away from them!

For they are all ^gadulterers,

a company of treacherous men.

3  They bend their tongue like a bow;

falsehood and not truth has grown strong³ in the land;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not know me, declares the Lord.

4  Let everyone ^hbeware of his neighbor,

and put no trust in any brother,

for every brother is a deceiver,

and every neighbor goes about as a ⁱslanderer.

5  Everyone deceives his neighbor,

and no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongue to speak lies;

they weary themselves committing iniquity.

6  Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,

they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

7  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, I will ^jrefine them and test them,

for what else can I do, because of my people?

8  Their tongue is a deadly arrow;

it speaks deceitfully;

with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.

9  ^kShall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord,

and shall I not avenge myself

on a nation such as this?

10  “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,

and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,

because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard;

both the ^lbirds of the air and the beasts

have fled and are gone.

11  I will make Jerusalem a ^mheap of ruins,

a lair of ⁿjackals,

and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

17  Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;

send for the skillful women to come;

18  let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,

that our eyes may run down with ^stears

and our eyelids flow with water.

19  For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

‘How we are ruined!

We are utterly shamed,

because we have left the land,

because they have cast down our dwellings.’”

20  Hear, O women, the word of the Lord,

and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;

teach to your daughters a lament,

and each to her neighbor a dirge.

21  For death has come up into our windows;

it has entered our palaces,

cutting off the ^tchildren from the streets

and the young men from the squares.

22  Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,

‘The dead bodies of men shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

like sheaves after the reaper,

and none shall gather them.’”

^x“Learn not the way of the nations,

nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens

because the nations are dismayed at them,

3  for the customs of the peoples are vanity.¹

A tree from the forest is cut down

and worked with an axe by the hands of a ^ycraftsman.

4  They decorate it with silver and gold;

they fasten it with hammer and nails

so that it cannot move.

5  Their idols² are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,

and ^zthey cannot speak;

^athey have to be carried,

for they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them,

for ^bthey cannot do evil,

neither is it in them to do good.”

6  There is none like you, O Lord;

you are great, and your name is great in might.

7  ^cWho would not fear you, O King of the nations?

For this is your due;

for among all the wise ones of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

there is none like you.

8  They are both stupid and foolish;

the instruction of idols is but wood!

9  Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,

and gold from Uphaz.

They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;

their clothing is violet and purple;

they are all the work of skilled men.

10  But the Lord is the true God;

he is the living God and the everlasting King.

At his wrath the earth ^dquakes,

and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

12  ^eIt is he who made the earth by his power,

who established the world ^fby his wisdom,

and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

13  When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,

and ^ghe makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

He makes lightning for the rain,

and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

14  Every man is stupid and without knowledge;

every goldsmith is ^hput to shame by his idols,

for his images are false,

and ⁱthere is no breath in them.

15  They are worthless, a work of delusion;

at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

16  Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob,

for he is the one who formed all things,

and Israel is the ^jtribe of his inheritance;

^kthe Lord of hosts is his name.

17  Gather up your bundle from the ground,

O you who dwell under siege!

18  For thus says the Lord:

“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land

at this time,

and I will bring distress on them,

that they may feel it.”

19  Woe is me because of my hurt!

^lMy wound is grievous.

But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,

and I must bear it.”

20  ^mMy tent is destroyed,

and all my cords are broken;

my children have gone from me,

and ⁿthey are not;

there is no one to spread my tent again

and to set up my curtains.

21  For the ^oshepherds are stupid

and do not inquire of the Lord;

therefore they have not prospered,

and all their flock is scattered.

22  A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—

a great commotion out of the ^pnorth country

to make the cities of Judah a desolation,

a lair of ^qjackals.

23  I know, O Lord, that ^rthe way of man is not in himself,

that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

24  ^sCorrect me, O Lord, but in justice;

not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

25  ^tPour out your wrath ^uon the nations that know you not,

and on the peoples that call not on your name,

^vfor they have devoured Jacob;

they have devoured him and consumed him,

and have laid waste his habitation.

18  The Lord made it known to me and I knew;

then you showed me their deeds.

19  But I was ⁱlike a gentle lamb

led to the slaughter.

I did not know it was ^jagainst me

they devised schemes, saying,

“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,

let us ^kcut him off from the land of the living,

that his name be remembered no more.”

20  But, ^lO Lord of hosts, who judges righteously,

who ^mtests the heart and the mind,

let me see your ⁿvengeance upon them,

for to you have I committed my cause.

12  Righteous are you, O Lord,

when I complain to you;

yet I would plead my case before you.

^qWhy does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

2  You plant them, and they take root;

they grow and produce fruit;

you are ^rnear in their mouth

and far from their heart.

3  But ^syou, O Lord, know me;

you see me, and test my heart toward you.

Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,

and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

4  How long will the land ^tmourn

and the grass of every field wither?

For the evil of those who dwell in it

the beasts and the ^ubirds are swept away,

because they said, “He will not see our latter end.”

5  “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,

how will you compete with horses?

And if in a safe land you are so trusting,

what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

6  For even your brothers and the house of your father,

even they have dealt treacherously with you;

they are in full cry after you;

do not believe them,

though they speak friendly words to you.”

7  “I have forsaken my house;

I have abandoned my heritage;

I have given the beloved of my soul

into the hands of her enemies.

8  My heritage has become to me

like a lion in the forest;

she has lifted up her voice against me;

therefore I hate her.

9  Is my heritage to me like a hyena’s lair?

Are the birds of prey against her all around?

Go, assemble all the wild beasts;

^vbring them to devour.

10  Many ^wshepherds have destroyed my ^xvineyard;

they have trampled down my portion;

they have made my pleasant portion

a desolate wilderness.

11  They have made it a desolation;

desolate, it mourns to me.

The whole land is made desolate,

but ^yno man lays it to heart.

12  Upon all the bare heights in the desert

destroyers have come,

for the sword of the Lord devours

from one end of the land to the other;

no flesh has peace.

13  They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;

they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.

They shall be ashamed of their¹ harvests

because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”