Jeremiah 8:4-12

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.