12 And they said: We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?
14 Shall now the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?
15 Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:
16 That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 As a burning will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.
18 And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.