3. Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.
4. “Moreover you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “‘Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
5. Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit, they refuse to return.
6. I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
7. Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
8. “‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
9. The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?
10. Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
11. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
13. “‘I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.’”
14. “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.