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Like Physicians Who Fail to Do Their Job

IN THE time of the prophet Jeremiah there was a moral breakdown among the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the land of Judah. The priests and the false prophets only added to the problem. The word of Jehovah through Jeremiah was: “From the least one of them even to the greatest one of them, every one is making for himself unjust gain; and from the prophet even to the priest, each one is acting falsely. And they try to heal the breakdown of my people lightly, saying, ‘There is peace! There is peace!’ when there is no peace.”​—Jer. 6:13, 14.

Corruption existed among all​—from the least to the greatest. The people were concerned about their own interests, not those of others. They did whatever might bring the greatest profit to them. Those who should have been teaching the people were dishonest. Like physicians who fail to make a thorough examination and who then prescribe the wrong medicine, the priests and false prophets dismissed the breakdown among the Israelites as amounting to nothing. They claimed that all was well or at peace when, in reality, the nation was in a very sickly condition morally. Thus they tried to ‘heal the breakdown of the Israelites lightly.’