⁴ “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^(A)When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵ Why then has this people ^(B)turned away
    in perpetual ^(C)backsliding?
^(D)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
^6 (E)I have paid attention and listened,
    but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
    saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
    ^(F)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(G)the turtledove, ^(H)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
^(I)but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

¹⁶ Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?