1At that time, declares Yahweh, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from their graves.
2And they will spread them out before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they loved and which they served and after which they walked and which they sought and to which they bowed down. They will not be gathered nor buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground.
3And death will be chosen over life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, in all the places that remain, wherever I have driven them, declares Yahweh of hosts.
4And you shall say to them: Thus says Yahweh: Do people fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not turn back?
5Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in a perpetual turning away? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.
6I paid attention and listened; they do not speak rightly. No one repents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each one turns to his own course, like a horse charging into battle.
7Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed times, and the turtledove and swift and crane keep the time of their coming; but my people do not know the ordinance of Yahweh.
8How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us’? Behold, in fact the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.
9The wise are put to shame; they are dismayed and caught. Behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh, so what wisdom do they have?
10Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who will possess them; for from the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.
11They have healed the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12They were put to shame because they committed abomination; yet they were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; at the time of their reckoning they shall stumble, says Yahweh.
13I will surely make an end of them, declares Yahweh; there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf is withered; and what I gave them shall pass away from them.
14Why are we sitting still? Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities and perish there; for Yahweh our God has doomed us to perish and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
15We hoped for peace, but there is no good; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighing of his stallions the whole land trembles. They come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it.
17For behold, I am sending among you serpents, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you, declares Yahweh.
18My cheer amid sorrow—my heart within me is faint.
19Behold, the sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: ‘Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her King not in her?’ Why have they provoked me with their carved images, with their foreign vanities?
20The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21For the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn; horror has gripped me.
22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come about?
23Oh that my head were water and my eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
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