4“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane^a
keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
the rules^b of the Lord.

8“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”^c

14Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

16“The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
adders that cannot be charmed,
and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People