Jeremiah 5
5
The Depravity of Jerusalem
1Roam#2Ch 16:9 through the streets of Jerusalem.
Investigate;#5:1 Lit See and know
search in her squares.
If you find one person,#Ps 14:1–3; Ezk 22:30; Rm 3:10
any who acts justly,
who pursues faithfulness,
then I will forgive her.#Gn 18:26–32
2When they say, “As the Lord lives,”#Jr 4:2
they are swearing falsely.#Lv 19:12; Is 48:1; Jr 7:9
3 Lord, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness?#2Ch 16:9; Ps 51:6
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.#Pr 23:35
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.#Pr 27:22
They made their faces harder than rock,#Ezk 3:7–9
and they refused to return.#Hs 11:5
4Then I thought:
They are just the poor;
they have been foolish.
For they don’t understand the way of the Lord,#Gn 18:19; 2Kg 17:26; 21:22; Ps 95:10; Jr 8:7; Hs 4:6
the justice of their God.#Mc 3:1
5I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.#Ps 103:7
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.#Ps 2:3; Jr 2:20
6Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.#2Kg 17:26; Jr 4:7; 25:38
A wolf from arid plains will ravage them.
A leopard#Hs 13:7; Rv 13:2 stalks their cities.
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,#Is 59:12
their unfaithful deeds numerous.#Jr 3:6,8,11–12,22; 14:7; 30:15; Am 5:12
7Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me
and sworn by those who are not gods.#Dt 32:21; Jos 23:7; Gl 4:8
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery;#Hs 4:10
they gashed themselves#1Kg 18:24 at the#5:7 Or adultery and trooped to the, or adultery and lodged at the; Hb obscure prostitute’s house.
8They are well-fed,#5:8 Lit well-equipped; Hb obscure eager#5:8 Lit early-rising; Hb obscure stallions,#Ezk 23:20
each neighing#Jr 13:27 after someone else’s wife.#Ex 20:14; Ezk 22:11
9Should I not punish them for these things?#Jr 5:29; 8:10; 9:9
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge myself#Dt 32:35; Heb 10:30
on such a nation as this?
10Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them,#2Kg 24:2
but do not finish them off.#Jr 4:27
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the Lord.#Hs 1:9
11They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
have dealt very treacherously with me.#Is 21:2; 24:16; 48:8; Hs 6:7
This is the Lord’s declaration.
12They have contradicted the Lord
and insisted, “It won’t happen.#5:12 Lit “He does not exist#Is 28:15; Jr 23:17
Harm won’t come to us;
we won’t see sword or famine.”
13The prophets become only wind,
for the Lord’s word is not in them.
This will in fact happen to them.
Coming Judgment
14Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Armies says:
Because you have spoken this word,
I am going to make my words
become fire in your mouth.#Hs 6:5; Rv 11:5
These people are the wood,
and the fire will consume them.#Zch 12:6
15I am about to bring a nation
from far away against you,#Is 10:3; 13:5; 30:27; Jr 4:16
house of Israel.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
It is an established nation,
an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.#Dt 28:49; Is 28:11; 33:19; 1Co 14:21
16Their quiver is like an open grave;#Ps 5:9; Rm 3:13
they are all warriors.
17They will consume your harvest and your food.#Lv 26:16; Dt 28:31,33,51
They will consume your sons and your daughters.
They will consume your flocks and your herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
your fortified cities#Hs 8:14 in which you trust.
18“But even in those days” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “I will not finish you off.#2Ch 12:12; Jr 4:27; 5:10; 30:11; Ezk 11:13; 20:17; Rm 11:1–5 19When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us? ’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me#Dt 28:20; 29:24–25; 31:16; Jdg 2:12; 1Sm 8:8; 1Kg 9:8–9; Is 1:4,28; Jr 1:16; 2:13,17,19; 16:11; 17:13 and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’ #Dt 4:27–28; 28:47–48
20“Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:
21Hear this,
you foolish and senseless#5:21 Lit without heart people.#Dt 32:6
They have eyes, but they don’t see.
They have ears, but they don’t hear.#Ps 115:5–6; 135:16–17; Is 6:9; 42:20; Ezk 12:2; Mt 13:14; Mk 8:18
22Do you not fear me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Do you not tremble before me,
the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?#Jb 26:10; 38:10–11; Ps 104:9; Pr 8:29
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.#Dt 21:18,20; Ps 78:8; Is 1:5; Heb 3:12
They have turned aside and have gone away.
24They have not said to themselves,
‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,#Pr 9:10; Hs 6:1
who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring,#Dt 11:14; Jl 2:23; Mt 5:45
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’
25Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you.
Your sins have withheld my bounty from you,#Is 59:2
26for wicked men live among my people.
They watch like hunters#5:26 Lit hunters of birds lying in wait.#5:26 Hb obscure#Pr 1:11
They set a trap;#Ps 10:9
they catch men.
27Like a cage full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.#Ps 10:7; 50:19; Is 3:14; 5:18; 30:12; Jr 8:5; Zph 1:9; Ac 13:10; Rm 1:29
Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.
28They have become fat#Dt 32:15 and sleek.
They have also excelled in evil matters.
They have not taken up cases,
such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper,
and they have not defended the rights of the needy.#Dt 24:14; Jb 29:16; 30:25; 31:19; Ps 82:3–4; 140:12; Pr 14:31; 31:9; Is 1:23; Zch 7:10; Ac 4:34
29Should I not punish them for these things?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Should I not avenge myself#Jr 5:9; 8:19; Heb 10:30
on such a nation as this?
30“An appalling, horrible thing
has taken place in the land.#Hs 6:10
31The prophets prophesy falsely,#Jr 6:13; 8:10; 14:14; 20:6; 23:14,25–26,32; 27:10,14–16; 28:15; 29:9,21,31; Lm 2:14; Zch 13:3
and the priests rule by their own authority.
My people love it like this.
But what will you do at the end of it?#Dt 32:29; Is 10:3
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Jeremiah 5: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Jeremiah 5
5
1Go to and fro in streets of Jerusalem, And see, I pray you, and know, And seek in her broad places, if ye find a man, If there be one doing judgment, seeking stedfastness — Then am I propitious to her.
2And if they say, ‘Jehovah liveth,’ Surely to a falsehood they swear.
3 Jehovah, Thine eyes, are they not on stedfastness? Thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved, Thou hast consumed them, They have refused to receive instruction, They made their faces harder than a rock, They have refused to turn back.
4And I — I said, ‘Surely these [are] poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.
5I get me to the great, and I speak with them, For they have known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.’ Surely they together have broken the yoke, They have drawn away the bands.
6Therefore smitten them hath a lion out of the forest, A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them, A leopard is watching over their cities, Every one who is going out of them is torn, For many have been their transgressions, Mighty have been theirbackslidings.
7For this I am not propitious to thee, Thy sons have forsaken Me, And are satisfied by that which is not god, I satisfy them, and they commit adultery, And at the house of a harlot They gather themselves together.
8Fed horses — they have been early risers, Each to the wife of his neighbour they neigh.
9For these do I not lay a charge? An affirmation of Jehovah, And on a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?
10Go ye up on her walls, and destroy, And a completion make not, Turn aside her branches, for they [are] not Jehovah's,
11For dealt treacherously against Me have the house of Israel, And the house of Judah, an affirmation of Jehovah.
12They have lied against Jehovah, And they say, ‘[It is] not He, Nor come in against us doth evil, Yea, sword and famine we do not see.
13And the prophets become wind, And the word is not in them,’ — thus it is done by them.
14Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, Because of your speaking this word, Lo, I am making My words in thy mouth become fire, And this people wood, and it hath devoured them.
15Lo, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah, A nation — strong it [is], a nation — from of old it [is], A nation — thou knowest not its tongue, Nor understandest what it speaketh.
16Its quiver [is] as an open sepulchre, All of them — mighty ones.
17And it hath consumed thy harvest and thy bread, They consume thy sons, and thy daughters, It consumeth thy flock, and thy herd, It consumeth thy vine, and thy fig-tree, It maketh poor thy fenced cities, In which thou art trusting — by the sword.
18And even in those days, an affirmation of Jehovah, I do not make you a completion.
19And it hath come to pass, when ye say, ‘For what hath Jehovah our God done to us all these?’ That thou hast said unto them, ‘As ye have forsaken Me, And serve the gods of a foreigner in your land, So do ye serve strangers in a land not yours.
20Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, And sound ye it in Judah, saying,
21Hear ye, I pray you, this, O people, foolish and without heart, Eyes they have, and they see not, Ears they have, and they hear not.
22Me do ye not fear, an affirmation of Jehovah? From My presence are ye not pained? Who hath made sand the border of the sea, A limit age-during, and it passeth not over it, They shake themselves, and they are not able, Yea, sounded have its billows, and they pass not over.
23And this people hath an apostate and rebellious heart, They have turned aside, and they go on.
24And they have not said in their heart, ‘Let us fear, we pray you, Jehovah our God, who is giving rain, The sprinkling and the gathered, in its season, The appointed weeks of harvest He keepeth for us.’
25Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have kept the good from you.
26For the wicked have been found among My people. It looketh about the covering of snares, They have set up a trap — men they capture.
27As a cage full of fowls, So their houses are full of deceit, Therefore they have been great, and are rich.
28They have been fat, they have shone, Yea, they have overpassed the acts of the evil, Judgment they have not judged, The judgment of the fatherless — and they prosper, And the judgment of the needy they have not judged.
29For these do not I inspect, an affirmation of Jehovah, On a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?
30An astonishing and horrible thing hath been in the land.
31The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved [it] so, And what do they at its latter end?
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