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that time,” declares the Lord, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. 2 They will be spread out before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and served, and followed, and consulted, and worshipped. Their bones will not be collected or buried, but they will be like dung laying on the surface of the land. 3 Death will be preferred over life by the surviving residue of this evil clan, in all the places where I banish them,” declares the Lord of Hosts.
4 “You are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:
“Will someone fall over, and not get up again?
Will he turn away and not return?
5 Why then have these people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 I have listened attentively,
but they do not speak what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone pursues his own course
like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky
knows her appointed seasons;
and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane
observe the time of their migration,
but My people do not know
the requirements of the Lord.
8 “How can you claim: ‘We are wise’,
and, ‘the law of the Lord is with us’?
when in fact the lying pen of scribes
has been working falsehood.
9 The wise will be put to shame;
they will be dismayed and trapped,
for they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others,
and their fields to new occupants;
because from the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They dress the injury to the daughter of My people
as though it was but a minor issue;
They say, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
12 Are they ashamed of their loathsome misconduct?
No! They have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.
When the time of their punishment comes,
they will be overthrown,”
declares the Lord.
13 “I will surely consume them,”
declares the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree;
even the leaf will wither.
Everything I have given them
will be taken from them” ’.”
14 “Why do we just sit here idly?
Gather together;
let us enter into the fortified cities,
and perish there!
For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish,
and given us water of gall to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We hoped for peace,
but no good has come;
for a time of healing,
but instead there is only terror!
16 “The snorting of their horses
is heard from Dan;
at the sound of their stallions neighing,
the whole land trembles.
For they have come to devour
the land and all that is in it,
the city and all who live there.”
17 “Behold, I am sending serpents among you,
vipers that cannot be charmed,
and they will bite you,”
declares the Lord.
18 My joy has ended in sorrow;
my heart is faint within me.
19 Listen to the cry of the Daughter of my people
from a land far away:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her midst?”
“Why have they provoked Me to anger
with their graven images,
with their worthless foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest has passed,
the summer is ended,
and we are not saved!”
21 As my own dear people have been crushed,
I also am crushed;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
for my own dear people?