“You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says:

Do people fall and not get up again?(A)
If they turn away, do they not return?
Why have these people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They take hold of deceit;(B)
they refuse to return.(C)
I have paid careful attention.
They do not speak what is right.
No one regrets his evil,
asking, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone has stayed his course
like a horse rushing into battle.(D)
Even storks in the sky
know their seasons.
Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes[a]
are aware of their migration,
but my people do not know
the requirements of the Lord.(E)

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Footnotes

  1. 8:7 Hb obscure

Yahweh Questions His People

“And you shall say to them, ‘Thus asks[a] Yahweh:

“Do men fall and not stand up?
    If one turns away does he not return?
Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in enduring apostasy?
    They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.[b]
I have listened attentively,
    and I have listened.
They do not speak honestly,
    there is no man who regrets his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’
All of them are turning to their ways of running,
    like a horse plunging into battle.
Even the stork in heaven knows its appointed time,
    and the turtledove, and the swallow, and the song bird,
they observe the time of their coming.
    But my people do not know the ordinance[c] of Yahweh.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 8:4 Or “says”
  2. Jeremiah 8:5 Or “repent”
  3. Jeremiah 8:7 Or “law”