“‘When people fall down, do they not get up?^(A)
    When someone turns away,^(B) do they not return?
⁵ Why then have these people turned away?
    Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
They cling to deceit;^(C)
    they refuse to return.^(D)
6 I have listened^(E) attentively,
    but they do not say what is right.
None of them repent^(F) of their wickedness,
    saying, “What have I done?”
Each pursues their own course^(G)
    like a horse charging into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the sky
    knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
    observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know^(H)
    the requirements of the Lord.

¹⁸ You who are my Comforter^[a] in sorrow,
    my heart is faint^(A) within me.
¹⁹ Listen to the cry of my people
    from a land far away:^(B)
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King^(C) no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused^(D) my anger with their images,
    with their worthless^(E) foreign idols?”^(F)

²⁰ “The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
    and we are not saved.”

²¹ Since my people are crushed,^(G) I am crushed;
    I mourn,^(H) and horror grips me.
²² Is there no balm in Gilead?^(I)
    Is there no physician^(J) there?
Why then is there no healing^(K)
    for the wound of my people?

³ “They make ready their tongue
    like a bow, to shoot lies;^(R)
it is not by truth
    that they triumph^[c] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
    they do not acknowledge^(S) me,”
declares the Lord.
⁴ “Beware of your friends;^(T)
    do not trust anyone in your clan.^(U)
For every one of them is a deceiver,^[d](V)
    and every friend a slanderer.^(W)
5 Friend deceives friend,^(X)
    and no one speaks the truth.^(Y)
They have taught their tongues to lie;^(Z)
    they weary themselves with sinning.
⁶ You^[e] live in the midst of deception;^(AA)
    in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”
declares the Lord.