8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread tbefore the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. uAnd they shall not be gathered or buried. vThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 wDeath shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family xin all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.
4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
yWhen men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people zturned away
in perpetual abacksliding?
bThey hold fast to deceit;
6 cI have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
Everyone turns to his own course,
dlike a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens
and ethe turtledove, fswallow, and crane1
keep the time of their coming,
gbut my people know not
the rules2 of the Lord.
8 h“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
9 iThe wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed jand taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
10 kTherefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone lis greedy for unjust gain;
11 They have healed mthe wound of my people lightly,
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, nthey were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
oTherefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are qno grapes on the vine,
rnor figs on the fig tree;
seven the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”3
tGather together; tlet us go into the fortified cities
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has ugiven us vpoisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 wWe looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 x“The snorting of their horses is heard yfrom Dan;
at the sound of the neighing zof their stallions
athe whole land quakes.
They come band devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you cserpents,
adders dthat cannot be charmed,
eand they shall bite you,”
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;4
fmy heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from gthe length and breadth of the land:
hIs her King not in her?”
i“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
21 For the wound of jthe daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
kI mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no lbalm in Gilead?