¹ At that time, says Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

² And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered, nor be buried. They shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ Moreover thou shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall he turn away, and not return?

⁵ Why then has this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold firm deceit. They refuse to return.

⁶ I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak aright. No man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his course as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

⁷ Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times, and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

⁸ How can ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But behold, the false pen of the scribes has wrought falsely.

⁹ The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah, and what manner of wisdom is in them?

¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.

¹¹ And they have lightly healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

¹² Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

¹³ I will utterly consume them, says Jehovah. There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and things I have given them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there. For Jehovah our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!

¹⁶ The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles. For they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.

¹⁷ For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says Jehovah.

¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

¹⁹ Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities?

²⁰ The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold on me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?