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8.4
JEREMIAH

4Moreover thou shalt say unto them: Thus saith the Lord:

Do men fall, and not rise up again?
Doth one turn away, and not return?
5Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back
By a perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast deceit,
They refuse to return.
6I attended and listened,
But they spoke not aright;
No man repenteth him of his wickedness,
Saying: 'What have I done?'
Every one turneth away in his course,
As a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle.
7Yea, the stork in the heaven
Knoweth her appointed times;
And the turtle and the swallow and the crane
Observe the time of their coming;
But My people know not
The ordinance of the Lord.
8How do ye say: 'We are wise,
And the Law of the Lord is with us'?
Lo, certainly in vain hath wrought
The vain pen of the scribes.
9The wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken;
Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
And what wisdom is in them?
10Therefore will I give their wives unto others,
And their fields to them that shall possess them;
For from the least even unto the greatest
Every one is greedy for gain,
From the prophet even unto the priest
Every one dealeth falsely.
11And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people lightly,
Saying: 'Peace, peace', when there is no peace.
12They shall be put to shame because they have committed abomination;
Yea, they are not at all ashamed,
Neither know they how to blush;
Therefore shall they fall among them that fall,
In the time of their visitation they shall stumble,
Saith the Lord.
13I will utterly consume them, saith the Lord;
There are no grapes on the vine,
Nor figs on the fig-tree,
And the leaf is faded;
And I gave them that which they transgress.
14'Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities,
And let us be cut off there;
For the Lord our God hath cut us off,
And given us water of gall to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15We looked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of healing, and behold terror! '
16The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan;
At the sound of the neighing of his strong ones
The whole land trembleth;
For they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it,
The city and those that dwell therein.

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