“Will a person fall down and then not get up?
    Will someone turn away^[d] and then not turn back again?^[e]
5 Why has this people turned away?^[f]
    Why does Jerusalem continue in apostasy?
        They hold on to deceit and refuse to repent.
⁶ I’ve listened and I’ve heard,
    and what they say is not right.
No one repents of his evil and says,
    ‘What have I done?’
“They all turn to their own course
    like a horse racing into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows its seasons,
    and the dove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time for migration.
But my people don’t know
    the requirements^[g] of the Lord.
⁸ How can you say, ‘We’re wise,
    and the Law of the Lord is with us,’
when, in fact, the deceitful pen of the scribe has made it
    into something that deceives.
⁹ The wise men will be put to shame.
    They’ll be dismayed and taken captive.
Look, they have rejected the message from the Lord!
    So what kind of wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ Therefore, I’ll give their wives to others,
    and their fields to new owners.
Indeed, from the least important to the most important,
    they’re all greedy for dishonest gain.
From prophet to priest,
    they all act deceitfully.
¹¹ They have treated my people’s^[h] wound
    superficially, telling them, ‘Peace, peace,’
        when there is no peace.
¹² Are they ashamed because they have done
    what is repugnant to God?^[i]
They weren’t ashamed at all;
    they don’t even know how to blush!
Therefore they’ll fall with those who fall.
    When I punish them, they’ll be brought down,”
        says the Lord.

¹³ “I would have gathered them,”
    declares the Lord,
“but there were no grapes on the vine,
    and no figs on the fig tree,
and their leaves were withered.
    What I’ve given them has been taken away.”’”