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⁴ "You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^(f)When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵ Why then has this people ^(g)turned away
    in perpetual ^(h)backsliding?
⁽ⁱ⁾They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
^6 (j)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,
    ^(k)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(l)the turtledove, ^(m)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
⁽ⁿ⁾but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

^8 (o)"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 (p)The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed ^(q)and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
^10 (r)Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone ^(s)is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹¹ They have healed ^(t)the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,'
    when there is no peace.
¹² Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, ^(u)they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
^(v)Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
¹³ When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are ^(w)no grapes on the vine,
    ^(x)nor figs on the fig tree;
^(y)even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them."^[c]

¹⁴ Why do we sit still?
^(z)Gather together; ^(aa)let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has ^(ab)given us ^(ac)poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
^15 (ad)We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

^16 (ae)"The snorting of their horses is heard ^(af)from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing ^(ag)of their stallions
    ^(ah)the whole land quakes.
They come ^(ai)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 ^(aj)serpents,
    adders ^(ak)that cannot be charmed,
    ^(al)and they shall bite you,"
declares the Lord.

¹⁸ My joy is gone; grief is upon me;^{[d]
    (am)}my heart is sick within me.
¹⁹ Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from ^(an)the length and breadth of the land:
"Is the Lord not in Zion?
    ^(ao)Is her King not in her?"
^(ap)"Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?"
²⁰ "The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved."
²¹ For the wound of ^(aq)the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    ^(ar)I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

²² Is there no ^(as)balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?