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.
15. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
16. The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.”
17. “For, behold, I will send serpents, adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you,” says Yahweh.
18. Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.
19. Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: “Isn’t Yahweh in Zion? Isn’t her King in her?” “Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?”
20. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
22. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?