4 Then Yahweh says to tell them:

Don’t people get back up when they fall down?

≈ Don’t they come back after they’ve turned the wrong way?

5 So Why do these people from Yerushalem (Jerusalem) turn and away, then continue to be unfaithful?

They keep hold of deceitfulness and refuse to come back.

6 I’ve listened carefully but they don’t say the right things.

None of them wants to give up their wickedness.

^ All of them carry on their own ways, like a horse rushing forward in battle.

7 Even the stork as it flies, knows the seasons.

≈ The dove, swallow, and thrush stick to their migration times,

^ yet my people do know what Yahweh expects of them.

8 How can you all say that you’re wise and that you have Yahwehs instructions?

Honestly, the quills of deceitful scribes have made it into a lie.

9 The wise will be put to shame—

they will be dismayed and trapped.

Yes, they’ve rejected Yahweh’s message.

What wisdom do they really have?

10 Because of that, I’ll give their wives to others,

and their fields to those who dispossess them,

because they’re all prospering by taking advantage of others—

prophets and priests are all behaving deceptively.

11 They lightly treated the fracture of my people’s daughter,

saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there’s no peace.[ref]

12 Were they ashamed when they did something disgusting?

Even when confronted, they weren’t ashamed—

they didn’t know how to be humiliated

so they’ll fall like the others.

They’ll stumble at the time of their punishment says Yahweh.[ref]

13 I’ll bring their harvests to an end, says Yahweh.

≈ There won’t be any grapes on their vines, or figs on their trees.

Even the leaves will wither,

≈ and what I gave them, will rot away.

14 Why are we just sitting here?

→ Let’s go into the fortified cities together so we can die there,

because our god Yahweh is going to cause us to perish,

≈ and he’ll make us drink poisoned water because we’ve sinned against him.

15 We had hoped for peace, but nothing good came.

We hoped for a time of healing, but wow, got terror.

16 The snorting of his stallions could be heard from Dan.

≈ The whole earth shakes from the sound of the neighing of his powerful horses.

They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it,

≈ and the city and everyone living in it.

17 Yes, listen, I’ll send snakes[fn] among you all—

≈ vipers that can’t be charmed,

→ and they’ll bite you all, says Yahweh.