3. Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.
4. “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again?If one turns away, does he not return?
5. Why then has this people turned awayin perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit;they refuse to return.
6. 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, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7. Even the stork in the heavensknows her times,and the turtledove, swallow, and cranekeep the time of their coming, but my people know notthe rules of the Lord.
8. “How can you say, ‘We are wise,and the law of the Lord is with us’?But behold, the lying pen of the scribeshas made it into a lie.
9. The wise men shall be put to shame;they shall be dismayed and taken;behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,so what wisdom is in them?