1At that time, declares YHWH, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from their graves;
2and they shall spread them out to the sun, and to the moon, and to all the host of the heavens, which they have loved and which they have served (avad), and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and to which they have bowed down; they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; for dung upon the face of the ground (adamah) they shall be.
3And death shall be chosen rather than life (chai) by all the remnant that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, declares YHWH of hosts (tzevaot).
4And you shall say to them: Thus says YHWH: Do they fall and not rise? Does one turn away and not return?
5Why has this people of Jerusalem turned away with a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return.
6I attended and heard; they do not speak rightly; no man (ish) repents of his evil, saying: What have I done? Every one of them turns back in his course, like a horse rushing into the battle.
7Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times (moadim); and the turtledove and the swift and the crane keep the time of their coming; but My people do not know the judgment (mishpat) of YHWH.
8How do you say: We are wise, and the Torah of YHWH is with us? Surely, behold, for falsehood the lying pen of the scribes has worked.
9The wise are put to shame, they are dismayed and caught; behold, they have rejected the word of YHWH, and what wisdom is in them?
10Therefore I will give their wives (ishah) to others, their fields to those who shall possess them; for from the least even to the greatest, every one is greedy for gain; from the prophet even to the priest, every one practices falsehood.
11And they have healed the breaking of the daughter of My people lightly, saying: Peace, peace, but there is no peace.
12They are put to shame because they have done abomination; yet they are not at all ashamed, neither do they know how to be confounded; therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, says YHWH.
13I will utterly make an end of them, declares YHWH; there are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf is withered; and I gave them that which they transgress.
14Why are we sitting still? Gather yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities and be silent there; for YHWH our God has put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against YHWH.
15We waited for peace, but there was no good; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighing of his mighty ones the whole land trembles; and they come and devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it.
17For behold, I am sending among you serpents, vipers, for which there is no charm; and they shall bite you, declares YHWH.
18When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart within me is faint.
19Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far off: Is YHWH not in Zion? Is her King not in her? Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign vanities?
20The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21For the breaking of the daughter of my people I am broken; I am in mourning; horror has seized me.
22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?
23Who would give my head waters, and my eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!