Jeremiah 8:4-13

4Moreover you will say to them, thus says Adonai: “Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not return?

5Why then has this people—Jerusalem— turned away in perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

6I listened attentively, but they have not spoken what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each one turns in his own direction, like a horse charging into battle.

7Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed times, and the turtledove, swallow and crane observe the time of their migration, but My people do not know the judgments of Adonai.

8How can you say, ‘We are wise! The Torah of Adonai is with us’? In fact, it is the lying pen of the scribes that have made it a lie.

9The wise men will be put to shame— shattered, trapped. Look! They have rejected Adonai’s word, so what wisdom do they have?

10Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to new owners. For from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for gain. From the prophet even to the kohen everyone practices deceit.

11They heal the fracture of the daughter of My people by treating it superficially— saying, ‘Shalom, shalom,’ when there is no shalom.

12Were they ashamed of the abomination they committed? No, not ashamed, not at all— they do not know how to blush! So they will fall among the fallen. At the time of their punishment they will be brought down.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

13“I will utterly consume them,” says Adonai. “There will be no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither, and what I gave them will pass away.”