⁴ You are to tell them that this is what the Lord says:
Do people fall and not get up again?
If a person turns away, doesn’t he turn back again?
⁵ Then why has this people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They hang on to deception
and refuse to let it go.
⁶ I have paid attention and listened,
but they do not say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness.
No one asks, “What have I done?”
Everyone pursues his own course,
    like a horse charging into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons.
The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush ^[1]
    observe the right time for their migration.
But my people do not recognize
    the just judgments of the Lord.
⁸ How can you say, “We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us,”
when in reality the lying pen of the scribes
    has changed it into a lie?
⁹ Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be shattered and captured.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ That is why I will give their wives to other men
and their fields to new owners,
because, from the least to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain.
From prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.
¹¹ They dress the wound of the daughter of my people ^[2]
    as if it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.
¹² Are they ashamed when they do such a detestable thing?
No, they have no shame at all.
They do not even know how to blush.
That is why they will fall among the fallen.
They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.

¹³ I will take away their harvest, ^[3] declares the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine.
There will be no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaves will wither.
What I have given them will be taken away from them.

Jeremiah 9

¹ I wish my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears.
Then I would weep day and night
    for the fallen of my people. ^[6]
2 I wish there was a lodging place for travelers
in the wilderness.
Then I would leave my people
and get away from them.
They are all adulterers,
a society of traitors.

⁴ Everyone should be on guard against his friend.
Do not trust any brother,
for every brother is really a deceiver,
and every friend spreads slander.
⁵ Everyone betrays his friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie.
They wear themselves out with sinning.
⁶ You, Jeremiah, live in the midst of deception!
In their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,
declares the Lord.

⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord of Armies says.
Watch me. I will refine them and test them.
What else can I do for my dear people?
⁸ Their tongues are like deadly arrows.
They speak deceitfully.
With their mouths they speak peacefully to their neighbors,
but in their hearts they set traps.
⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord.
Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

²⁰ Listen to the word of the Lord, you women.
Pay attention to the word from his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to sob.
Each of you should teach her neighbor a lament.
²¹ Death has climbed in through a window
and entered our citadels.
It has taken away the children from the streets
and the young men from the city squares.

²² This is what the Lord says.
Dead bodies will fall
like manure on the ground,
like freshly cut grain after the reaper,
with no one to gather it.