Jeremiah 8:1-12

English Standard Version

8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. ²And they shall be spread ^(A)before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^(B)And they shall not be gathered or buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ³^(D)Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^(E)in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

⁴“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^(F)When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵Why then has this people ^(G)turned away
    in perpetual ^(H)backsliding?
^(I)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
⁶^(J)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,
    ^(K)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(L)the turtledove, ^(M)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
^(N)but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

⁸^(O)“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^(P)The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed ^(Q)and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰^(R)Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone ^(S)is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
¹¹They have healed ^(T)the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
¹²Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, ^(U)they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
^(V)Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.