¹ At that time, says the LORD, they shall 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 people 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 nor buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth.

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

⁴ And you shall say to them, So says the LORD; shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return?

⁵ Why has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a never-ending backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

⁶ I listened and heard, but they did not speak right; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turned to their own courses own way, as the horse rushes into the battle.

⁷ Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her seasons; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow watch the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

⁸ How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly the lying pen of the scribes has written falsely.

⁹ The wise are ashamed, they are terrified, and are captured. Lo, they have turned away from the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall inherit them, 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; when there is no peace.

¹² Were they ashamed when they had done an 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 the LORD.

¹³ I will utterly consume them, says the LORD; there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given 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 be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence, and has given us poisonous water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, but behold, trouble!

¹⁶ The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his stallions. For they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those who live in it.

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

¹⁸ When I would 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 far country. Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign vanities?

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

²¹ For the breaking of the daughter of my people I am broken; I am in gloom; horror has seized me.

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