Jeremiah 5
5
Is Anyone Honest and Faithful?
The Lord said to me:
1“Search Jerusalem
for honest people
who try to be faithful.
If you can find even one,
I'll forgive the whole city.
2Everyone breaks promises
made in my name.”
3I answered, “I know
that you look for truth.
You punished your people
for their lies,
but in spite of the pain,
they became more stubborn
and refused to turn back
to you.”
4Then I thought to myself,
“These common people
act like fools,
and they have never learned
what the Lord their God
demands of them.
5So I'll go and talk to the leaders.
They know what God demands.”
But even they had decided
not to obey the Lord.
6The people have rebelled
and rejected the Lord
too many times.
So enemies will attack
like lions from the forest
or wolves from the desert.
Those enemies will watch
the towns of Judah,
and like leopards
they will tear to pieces
whoever goes outside.
Enemies Will Punish Judah
The Lord said:
7People of Judah,
how can I forgive you?
I gave you everything,
but you abandoned me
and worshiped idols.
You men go to prostitutes
and are unfaithful
to your wives.
8You are no better than animals,
and you always want sex
with someone else's wife.
9Why shouldn't I punish
the people of Judah?
10I will tell their enemies,
“Go through my vineyard.
Don't destroy the vines,
but cut off the branches,
because they are the people
who don't belong to me.”
11In every way, Judah and Israel
have been unfaithful to me.
* 12Their prophets lie and say,
“The Lord won't punish us.
We will have peace
and plenty of food.”
13They tell these lies in my name,
so now they will be killed in war
or starve to death.
14I am the Lord God All-Powerful.
Jeremiah, I will tell you
exactly what to say.
Your words will be a fire;
Israel and Judah
will be the fuel.
15People of Israel,
I have made my decision.
An army from a distant country
will attack you.
I've chosen an ancient nation,
and you won't understand
their language.
16All of them are warriors,
and their arrows bring death.
17This nation will eat your crops
and livestock;
they will leave no fruit
on your vines or fig trees.
And although you feel safe
behind thick walls,
your towns will be destroyed
and your children killed.
Israel Refused To Worship the Lord
18The Lord said:
Jeremiah, the enemy army won't kill everyone in Judah. 19And the people who survive will ask, “Why did the Lord our God do such terrible things to us?” Then tell them:
I am the Lord,
but you abandoned me
and worshiped other gods
in your own land.
Now you will be slaves
in a foreign country.
20Tell these things to each other,
you people of Judah,
you descendants of Jacob.
21 #
Is 6.9,10; Ez 12.2; Mk 8.18. You fools! Why don't you listen
when I speak?
Why can't you understand
22 #
Job 38.8-11. that you should worship me
with fear and trembling?
I'm the one who made the shore
to hold back the ocean.
Waves may crash on the beach,
but they can come no farther.
23You stubborn people have rebelled
and turned your backs on me.
24You refuse to say,
“Let's worship the Lord!
He's the one who sends rain
in spring and autumn
and gives us a good harvest.”
25That's why I cannot bless you!
* 26A hunter traps birds
and puts them in a cage,
but some of you trap humans
and make them your slaves.
27You are evil, and you lie and cheat
to make yourselves rich.
You are powerful
28and prosperous,
but you refuse to help#5.28 refuse to help: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. the poor
get the justice they deserve.
29You need to be punished,
and so I will take revenge.
30Look at the terrible things
going on in this country.
I am shocked!
31Prophets give their messages
in the name of a false god,#5.31 give … god: Or “tell lies.”
my priests don't want
to serve me,#5.31 don't … me: Or “don't care what I want.”
and you—my own people—
like it this way!
But on the day of disaster,
where will you turn for help?
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Jeremiah 5: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 5
5
Jeremiah 5
1¶ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and find out and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that execute judgment, that seek the truth; and I will pardon the city.
2And if they should say, The Lord lives; surely they swear falsely.
3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they did not feel it; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive chastisement; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they have become foolish; for they do not know the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God.
5I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.
6Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the desert shall destroy them and a tiger shall lie in wait over their cities; anyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their rebellions have been multiplied, and their backslidings are increased.
7How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy sons have forsaken me and sworn by them that are not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8They were as fed horses in the morning; each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9Shall I not visit for these things? said the Lord; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10¶ Go ye up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements for they are not the Lord’s.
11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made a firm decision to rebel against me, saith the Lord.
12They have denied the Lord and said, He is not; and evil shall not come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine;
13but the prophets shall become like wind, and there is no word in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14Therefore thus hath the Lord God of the hosts said: Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou dost not know, neither dost thou understand what they say.
16Their quiver is as an open sepulcher; they are all mighty men.
17And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; and thy fenced cities, in which thou dost trust, they shall bring to nothing with the sword.
18Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you.
19And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why does the Lord our God do all these things unto us? Then thou shalt answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20¶ Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah, saying,
21Hear now this, O foolish people and without heart, who have eyes and do not see; who have ears, and do not hear:
22Do ye not fear me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence, who placed the sand for the bound of the sea by an eternal order, which cannot be broken? Storms shall raise themselves up, yet they shall not prevail; their waves shall roar, yet they shall not pass over it.
23But this people have a false and rebellious heart; they turned and went.
24Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; he shall keep us with the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25¶ Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26For among my people were found wicked men: they lay in wait as he that sets snares; they set a trap of perdition to catch men.
27As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; thus they became great and rich.
28They are become fat; they shine; yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they did not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless; with all this they made themselves prosperous; and they did not judge the cause of the poor.
29Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30A horrible and ugly thing is committed in the land:
31The prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their hands; and my people love to have it so. What will ye do in the end thereof?
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International