⁸ “^(A)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.
⁹ The wise men are ^(B)put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have ^(C)rejected the word of the Lord,
So what kind of wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ Therefore I will ^(D)give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is ^(E)greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest,
Everyone practices deceit.
¹¹ They have ^(F)healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
¹² Were they ^(G)ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They were not ashamed at all,
And they did not know how to be ashamed;
Therefore they will ^(H)fall among those who fall;
At the ^(I)time of their punishment they will collapse,”
Says the Lord.

¹³ “I will ^(J)certainly snatch them away,” declares the Lord.
“There will be ^(K)no grapes on the vine
And ^(L)no figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”
¹⁴ Why are we sitting still?
^(M)Assemble yourselves, and let’s ^(N)go into the fortified cities
And perish there,
For the Lord our God has doomed us
And given us ^(O)poisoned water to drink,
Because ^(P)we have sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ We ^(Q)waited for peace, but no good came;
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
¹⁶ From ^(R)Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his ^(S)stallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and ^(T)devour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
¹⁷ “For behold, I am ^(U)sending serpents among you,
Vipers for which there is ^(V)no charm;
And they will bite you,” declares the Lord.

^18 [a]My ^(W)sorrow is beyond healing,
My ^(X)heart is faint within me!
¹⁹ Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a ^(Y)distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they ^(Z)provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign ^[b](AA)idols?”
²⁰ “Harvest is past, summer is over,
And we are not saved.”
²¹ I am broken over the ^(AB)brokenness of the daughter of my people.
I ^(AC)mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
²² Is there no ^(AD)balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
^(AE)Why then has not the ^[c]health of the daughter of my people ^[d]been restored?

¹⁰ “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the ^(BB)mountains,
And for the pastures of the ^(BC)wilderness a song of mourning,
Because they are ^(BD)laid waste so that no one passes through,
And the sound of the livestock is not heard;
Both the ^(BE)birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
¹¹ I will make Jerusalem a ^(BF)heap of ruins,
A haunt of ^(BG)jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a ^(BH)desolation without inhabitant.”

³² In spite of all this they ^(A)still sinned
And ^(B)did not believe in His wonderful works.
³³ So He brought ^(C)their days to an end in futility,
And their years to an end in sudden terror.

³⁴ When He killed them, then they ^(D)sought Him,
And they returned and searched ^(E)diligently for God;
³⁵ And they remembered that God was their ^(F)rock,
And the Most High God their ^(G)Redeemer.
³⁶ But they ^(H)flattered Him with their mouth
And ^(I)lied to Him with their tongue.
³⁷ For their heart was not ^(J)steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful with His covenant.
³⁸ But He, being ^(K)compassionate, ^[a](L)forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;
And often He ^[b](M)restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.
³⁹ So ^(N)He remembered that they were only ^(O)flesh,
A ^[c](P)wind that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰ How often they ^(Q)rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And ^(R)grieved Him in the ^(S)desert!
⁴¹ Again and again they ^[d](T)tempted God,
And pained the ^(U)Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They ^(V)did not remember ^(W)His ^[e]power,
The day when He ^(X)redeemed them from the enemy,
⁴³ When He performed His ^(Y)signs in Egypt
And His ^(Z)marvels in the field of Zoan,
⁴⁴ And ^(AA)turned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
⁴⁵ He sent swarms of ^(AB)flies among them that devoured them,
And ^(AC)frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He also gave their crops to the ^(AD)grasshopper
And the product of their labor to the ^(AE)locust.
⁴⁷ He ^[f]destroyed their vines with ^(AF)hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
⁴⁸ He also turned their ^(AG)cattle over to the hailstones,
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
⁴⁹ He ^(AH)sent His burning anger upon them,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
A band of ^[g]destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their souls from death,
But ^(AI)turned their lives over to the plague,
⁵¹ And ^(AJ)struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
The ^(AK)first and best of their vigor in the tents of ^(AL)Ham.
⁵² But He ^(AM)led His own people out like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness ^(AN)like a flock;
⁵³ He led them ^(AO)safely, so that they did not fear;
But ^(AP)the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴ So ^(AQ)He brought them to His holy ^[h]land,
To this ^[i](AR)hill country ^(AS)which His right hand had gained.
⁵⁵ He also ^(AT)drove out the nations from them
And ^(AU)apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,
And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

²⁷ Prepare your work outside,
And ^(A)make it ready for yourself in the field;
Afterward, then, build your house.