Jeremiah 8:4-17

English Standard Version

Sin and Treachery

⁴“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^(A)When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵Why then has this people ^(B)turned away
    in perpetual ^(C)backsliding?
^(D)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
⁶^(E)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,
    ^(F)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(G)the turtledove, ^(H)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
^(I)but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

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

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

¹⁶^(Z)“The snorting of their horses is heard ^(AA)from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing ^(AB)of their stallions
    ^(AC)the whole land quakes.
They come ^(AD)and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷For behold, I am sending among you ^(AE)serpents,
    adders ^(AF)that cannot be charmed,
    ^(AG)and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.