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

^yWhen men fall, do they not rise again?

If one turns away, does he not return?

5  Why then has this people ^zturned away

in perpetual ^abacksliding?

^bThey hold fast to deceit;

they refuse to return.

6  ^cI 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,

^dlike a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7  Even the stork in the heavens

knows her times,

and ^ethe turtledove, ^fswallow, and crane¹

keep the time of their coming,

^gbut my people know not

the rules² of the Lord.

8  ^h“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  ⁱThe wise men shall be put to shame;

they shall be dismayed ^jand taken;

behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,

so what wisdom is in them?

10  ^kTherefore I will give their wives to others

and their fields to conquerors,

because from the least to the greatest

everyone ^lis greedy for unjust gain;

from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

11  They have healed ^mthe wound of my people lightly,

saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

when there is no peace.

12  Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, ⁿthey were not at all ashamed;

they did not know how to blush.

^oTherefore 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 ^qno grapes on the vine,

^rnor figs on the fig tree;

^seven the leaves are withered,

and what I gave them has passed away from them.”³

14  Why do we sit still?

^tGather together; ^tlet us go into the fortified cities

and perish there,

for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish

and has ^ugiven us ^vpoisoned water to drink,

because we have sinned against the Lord.

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

for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

16  ^x“The snorting of their horses is heard ^yfrom Dan;

at the sound of the neighing ^zof their stallions

^athe whole land quakes.

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

the city and those who dwell in it.

17  For behold, I am sending among you ^cserpents,

adders ^dthat cannot be charmed,

^eand they shall bite you,”

declares the Lord.

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

^fmy heart is sick within me.

19  Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people

from ^gthe length and breadth of the land:

“Is the Lord not in Zion?

^hIs her King not in her?”

ⁱ“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 ^jthe daughter of my people is my heart wounded;

^kI mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

22  Is there no ^lbalm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?

1  ^{5 m}Oh that my head were waters,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of ^jthe daughter of my people!

2  ⁶ 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 ⁿadulterers,

a company of ^otreacherous men.

3  ^pThey bend their tongue like a bow;

falsehood and not truth has grown strong⁷ in the land;

for they proceed from evil to evil,

^qand they do not know me, declares the Lord.

4  ^rLet everyone beware of his neighbor,

and put no trust in any brother,

for every ^sbrother is a deceiver,

and every neighbor ^tgoes about as a slanderer.

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,

^uthey refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

7  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, ^vI will refine them and ^wtest them,

for what else can I do, ^jbecause of my people?

8  ^xTheir tongue is a deadly arrow;

^yit speaks deceitfully;

with his mouth ^zeach speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart ^ahe plans an ambush for him.

9  ^bShall 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 ^cthe pastures of the wilderness,

^dbecause they are laid waste so that no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard;

^eboth the birds of the air and the beasts

have fled and are gone.

11  ^fI will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,

^ga lair of jackals,

^hand I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

17  Thus says the Lord of hosts:

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

send for the skillful women to come;

18  let them make haste ^sand raise a wailing over us,

^tthat our eyes may run down with tears

and our eyelids flow with water.

19  For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:

^u‘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,

^vcutting off the children from the streets

and the young men from the squares.

22  Speak: “Thus declares the Lord,

^w‘The dead bodies of men shall fall

like dung upon the open field,

^xlike sheaves after the reaper,

and none shall gather them.’”

“Learn not the way of the nations,

nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens

because the nations are dismayed at them,

3  ^ffor the customs of the peoples are vanity.⁸

^gA tree from the forest is cut down

and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.

4  ^hThey decorate it with silver and gold;

ⁱthey fasten it with hammer and nails

so that it cannot move.

5  Their idols⁹ are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,

and ^jthey cannot speak;

^kthey have to be carried,

for they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them,

^lfor they cannot do evil,

neither is it in them to do good.”

6  ^mThere is none like you, O Lord;

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

7  ⁿWho 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  ^oThey are both ^pstupid and foolish;

the instruction of idols is but wood!

9  ^qBeaten silver is brought from ^rTarshish,

and gold from ^sUphaz.

^qThey are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;

their clothing is violet and purple;

^tthey are all the work of skilled men.

10  ^uBut the Lord is the true God;

^vhe is the living God and the everlasting King.

At his wrath the earth quakes,

and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

12  ^yIt is he who ^zmade the earth by his power,

^zwho established the world by his wisdom,

and ^aby his understanding stretched out the heavens.

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

^cand he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.

^cHe makes lightning ^dfor the rain,

^cand he brings forth the wind ^efrom his storehouses.

14  ^fEvery man is stupid and without knowledge;

^gevery goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,

for his images are false,

^hand there 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 ⁱthe portion of Jacob,

for he is the one who formed all things,

^jand Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;

^kthe Lord of hosts is his name.

17  ^lGather up your bundle from the ground,

O you who dwell under siege!

18  For thus says the Lord:

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

at this time,

ⁿand I will bring distress on them,

that they may feel it.”

19  Woe is me because of my hurt!

^oMy wound is grievous.

But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,

and I must bear it.”

20  ^pMy tent is destroyed,

and all my cords are broken;

my children have gone from me,

^qand they are not;

there is no one to spread my tent again

and ^pto set up my curtains.

21  ^rFor the shepherds ^sare stupid

and do not inquire of the Lord;

therefore they have not prospered,

^tand all their flock is scattered.

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

^ua great commotion out of the north country

to make ^vthe cities of Judah a desolation,

^va lair of jackals.

23  ^wI know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,

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

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

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

25  ^yPour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,

and on the peoples that call not on your name,

^zfor they have devoured Jacob;

they have devoured him and consumed him,

and have laid waste his habitation.