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Even birds know when it is time for them to move to a different place.
    That is true for storks, doves, swallows and cranes.[a]
Birds know when it is time to return,
    but my people do not know my laws.
You say, “We are wise
    because we have the law of the Lord.”
But I tell you, your teachers have changed my laws.
    They teach you lies instead.
Those wise teachers will be ashamed and upset.
    Enemies will catch them as their prisoners.
They have refused to accept the Lord's message.
    So they are not really wise.

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Footnotes

  1. 8:7 ‘storks, doves, swallows and cranes’ are kinds of birds.

Even the stork in the sky
    knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
    observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know(A)
    the requirements of the Lord.

“‘How can you say, “We are wise,
    for we have the law(B) of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
    has handled it falsely?
The wise(C) will be put to shame;
    they will be dismayed(D) and trapped.(E)
Since they have rejected the word(F) of the Lord,
    what kind of wisdom(G) do they have?

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