 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 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 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 You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord. Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? 5 Why have these people of Jerusalem slidden back by never ending backsliding? They hold fast to deceit. They refuse to return. 6 I listened and heard but they did not speak truth+. No one repented of their wickedness saying, What have I done? Everyone turned in their own course like horsed rushing into battle. 7 Yes, 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 can you say, We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? Certainly the lying pen of the scribes has written falsely. 9 The wise are ashamed. They are terrified and captured. They have turned away from the Word of the Lord. What wisdom is in them? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will inherit them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest cut 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 will be no grapes on the vine nor figs on the fig tree. The leaf will fade. The things that I have given them, those who pass over them. 14 Why do we sit still? Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities. Let us be silent there. For the Lord our God has put us to silence and given us poisonous water to drink because we have sinned against the Lord. 15 We looked for peace but no good came. We looked 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 devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who live in it. 17 Behold, I will send serpents and poisonous reptiles+ among you that will not be charmed. They will 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?
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