1. “At that time,” says the Lord, “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, out of their graves.
2. They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth.
3. Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.
4. “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:“Will they fall and not rise?Will one turn away and not return?
5. Why has this people slidden back,Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?They hold fast to deceit,They refuse to return.
6. I listened and heard,But they do not speak aright.No man repented of his wickedness,Saying, ‘What have I done?’Everyone turned to his own course,As the horse rushes into the battle.
7. “Even the stork in the heavensKnows her appointed times;And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallowObserve the time of their coming.But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.