Jeremiah 8:5-10

English Standard Version

⁵Why then has this people ^(A)turned away
    in perpetual ^(B)backsliding?
^(C)They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
⁶^(D)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,
    ^(E)like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
⁷Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and ^(F)the turtledove, ^(G)swallow, and crane^[a]
    keep the time of their coming,
^(H)but my people know not
    the rules^[b] of the Lord.

⁸^(I)“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^(J)The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed ^(K)and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
¹⁰^(L)Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone ^(M)is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.