¹At that time, the utterance of Yahweh, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who dwelled in Jerusalem, from their graves.

²And they will spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of the skies, whom they loved, and whom they served, and whom they walked after them, and whom they sought, and whom they bowed down to. They will not be gathered, and they will not be buried; they will be dung on the face of the ground.

³And death will be chosen over life by all the remnant who remain of this evil family, in all the places of those who remain, where I have banished them, the utterance of Yahweh of hosts.

⁴And you will say to them: This is what Yahweh says: Do they fall and not get up? Or does anyone turn away and not turn back?

⁵Why has this people, Jerusalem turned away with an enduring turning away? They hold fast to deceit; they have refused to return.

⁶I paid attention and listened: they do not speak rightly; there is no man who is sorry over his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' All of them turn back in their running, like a horse galloping in the battle.

⁷Even the stork in the skies knows her appointed times, and the ring-dove, the swift, and the crane keep the time of their coming; but my people do not know the justice of Yahweh.

⁸How can you say, 'We are wise, and the instruction of Yahweh is with us'? But look, the false pen of the scribes has made it into falsehood.

⁹The wise have been put to shame, they are dismayed and caught; look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh, and what wisdom do they have?

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who take possession; for from the small to the great, all of them are gaining unjust profit; from prophet to priest, all of them are dealing in falsehood.

¹¹And they healed the fracture of the daughter of my people as though it were trifling, saying: Wholeness, wholeness, when there is no wholeness.

¹²Are they ashamed that they have made an abomination? Indeed, they are not at all ashamed, and they do not know how to be humiliated. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment, they will stumble, said Yahweh.

¹³Gathering, I will sweep them up, the utterance of Yahweh: there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf has withered; and what I gave them will pass away from them.

¹⁴Why are we sitting? Gather yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities and let us fall silent there; for Yahweh our God has silenced us and has given us poison water to drink, for we have sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵We waited eagerly for wholeness, but there was no good; for a time of healing, and look: terror.

¹⁶From Dan the snorting of his horses was heard; at the sound of the neighing of his mighty ones all the land shook; and they came and ate the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwelled in it.

¹⁷For here I am sending snakes among you, vipers for which there is no charm, and they will bite you, the utterance of Yahweh.

¹⁸My cheerfulness has given way to sorrow; my heart within me is faint.

¹⁹Behold, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a land of far places: Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with the idols of foreigners?

²⁰The harvest has passed, the summer fruit has ended, and we have not been saved.

²¹Over the fracture of the daughter of my people I am broken; I am darkened with mourning; desolation has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?