¹ At that time, declares Jehovah, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its 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 the heavens whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be dung on the face of the ground.

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

⁴ And you shall say to them, So says Jehovah, Shall they fall and not rise up? Or shall one turn away and not return?

⁵ Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away to a never ending apostasy? They hold fast to deceit. They refuse to return.

⁶ I listened and heard. They did not speak so. No man repented because of this evil, saying, What have I done? Everyone turned in their own courses, as a horse rushes into the battle.

⁷ Also the stork in the heavens knows her seasons, and the turtledove and the swallow and the thrush observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of Jehovah.

⁸ How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? Behold, the lying pen of the scribes has certainly worked deceit.

⁹ The wise are ashamed; they are terrified and are captured. Behold, they have rejected the word of Jehovah, and what wisdom is theirs?

¹⁰ So I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who shall inherit. For everyone from the least even to the greatest cuts off a profit. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

¹¹ For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace! And there is no peace.

¹² Were they ashamed when they had done hateful things? They were not even at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush. So they shall fall among those who fall. In the time of their punishment they will stumble, says Jehovah.

¹³ I will utterly consume them, says Jehovah. No grapes will be on the vine, or figs on the fig tree; even the leaf withers. And I will give to them those who pass over them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? Gather yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities; and let us stand still there. For Jehovah our God has made us stand still there, and He has made us drink poisonous water, because we have sinned against Jehovah.

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

¹⁶ The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; all the land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his stallions. For they come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who live in it.

¹⁷ For behold, I will send serpents among you, vipers for which there is no charm; and they will bite you, says Jehovah.

¹⁸ I suffer from desolation; my heart is sick within me, beyond grief.

¹⁹ Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land! Is not Jehovah in Zion? Or is not her king in her? Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign vanities?

²⁰ Harvest has passed; the summer has ended, and we are not delivered.

²¹ For the breaking of the daughter of my people, I am broken. I mourn; horror has taken hold on me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of My people not come?