My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. {destroyed: Heb. cut off}

This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. {imagination: or, stubbornness}

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, {say they}, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, {saying}, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. {All...: Heb. Every man of my peace}

But I {was} like a lamb {or} an ox {that} is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, {saying}, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. {the tree...: Heb. the stalk with his bread}

As a cage is full of birds, so {are} their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. {cage: or, coop}

Why {then} is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

And even as they did not like to retain God in {their} knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; {to retain: or, to acknowledge} {a reprobate...: or, a mind void of judgment or, an unapproving mind}

Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. {with...: or, for the tongue}

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak {this} to your shame.

Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, {and} from a deceitful tongue.

And even as they did not like to retain God in {their} knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; {to retain: or, to acknowledge} {a reprobate...: or, a mind void of judgment or, an unapproving mind}

Why {then} is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. {men: or, Adam}

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: {taking: or, yielding}

Forty years long was I grieved with {this} generation, and said, It {is} a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart {is} hardened, he refuseth to let the people go.

As a cage is full of birds, so {are} their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. {cage: or, coop}

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that {are} round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms {is} in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. {They will...: or, Their doings will not suffer them} {frame: Heb. give}

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue {is} mischief and vanity. {deceit: Heb. deceits} {vanity: or, iniquity}

Now the sons of Eli {were} sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, {that} I dwell in the tents of Kedar!