⁶ I listen carefully,
but none of you admit
    that you've done wrong.
Without a second thought,
you run down the wrong road^[b]
    like horses running blindly
    into battle.

⁷ Storks, doves, swallows,
and thrushes
    all know when it's time
to fly away for the winter
    and when to come back.
But you, my people,
    don't know what I demand.
⁸ You say, “We are wise
because we have the teachings
    and laws of the Lord.”
But I say that your teachers
have turned my words
    into lies!
⁹ Your wise men
have rejected what I say,
    and so they have no wisdom.
Now they will be trapped
and put to shame;
    they won't know what to do.
^10 (A) I'll give their wives and fields
    to strangers.

Everyone is greedy and dishonest,
    whether poor or rich.
Even the prophets and priests
    cannot be trusted.
^11 (B) All they ever offer
to my deeply wounded people
    are empty hopes for peace.
¹² They should be ashamed
of the way they live,
    but they don't even blush.
And so, when I punish Judah,
they will end up on the ground,
    dead like everyone else.
¹³ I will wipe them out.^[c]
They are vines without grapes;
    fig trees without figs or leaves.
They have not done a thing
    that I told them!^[d]
I, the Lord, have spoken.

¹⁷ “Watch out!” the Lord says.
“I'm sending poisonous snakes
    to attack you,
and no one can stop them.”

I hear the Lord reply,
“Why did you make me angry
    by worshiping useless idols?”

²⁰ The people complain,
“Spring and summer
    have come and gone,
but still the Lord
    hasn't rescued us.”

²¹ My people are crushed,
and so is my heart.
    I am horrified and mourn.
²² If medicine and doctors
may be found in Gilead,
    why aren't my people healed?