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
The Justice of God’s Judgment
1#2Ch 16:9; Eze 22:30 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
see now and know;
seek in the open places
if you can find a man,
if there is any who executes justice, who seeks the truth,
that I may pardon her.
2#Titus 1:16; Isa 48:1 Though they say, “The Lord lives,”
surely they swear falsely.
3#Jer 2:30; 2Ch 16:9 O Lord, are not Your eyes upon the truth?
You have stricken them, but they have not grieved.
You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder than a rock;
they have refused to return.
4#Jer 8:7; Isa 27:11 Therefore I said, “Surely these are the poor.
They are foolish;
for they know not the way of the Lord
or the judgment of their God.
5#Jer 2:20 I will go to the great men
and will speak to 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.
6#Jer 4:7; Hab 1:8 Therefore a lion out of the forest will slay them,
and a wolf from the deserts will destroy them;
a leopard will watch over their cities.
Everyone who goes out from there will be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many
and their backslidings have increased.
7#Dt 32:21; Jos 23:7 How shall I pardon you for this?
Your children have forsaken Me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
then they committed adultery
and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8#Jer 13:27; Eze 22:11 They were as fed horses in the morning;
everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9#Jer 9:9; 5:29 Shall I not punish for these things? says the Lord,
and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10#Jer 4:27; 39:8 Go up upon her walls and destroy,
but make not a full end.
Take away her battlements.
For they are not the Lord’s.
11#Jer 3:20 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have dealt very treacherously againstMe,
says the Lord.
12#2Ch 36:16; Jer 43:2–3 They have lied about the Lord,
and said, “Not He.
Neither shall evil come upon us,
nor shall we see sword or famine.”
13#Jer 14:15; Job 8:2 And the prophets shall become wind,
and the word is not in them.
Thus it shall be done to them!
14#Jer 1:9; 23:29Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts:
Because you speak this word,
indeed I will make My words in your mouth fire
and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15#Dt 28:49; Isa 5:26 Truly, I will bring a nation upon you from far,
O house of Israel, says the Lord.
It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor do you understand what they say.
16#Ps 5:9; Isa 5:28 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher,
they all are mighty men.
17#Lev 26:16; Dt 28:33 They will eat up your harvest and your bread
which your sons and your daughters should eat.
They will eat up your flocks and your herds;
they will eat up your vines and your fig trees;
they will impoverish your fenced cities,
in which you trusted, with the sword.
18#Jer 4:27; 5:10Nevertheless in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. 19#1Ki 9:8–9; Jer 13:22It shall come to pass when they say, “Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “As you have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
20Declare this in the house of Jacob
and publish it in Judah, saying:
21#Isa 6:9–10; Eze 12:2 Hear this now, O foolish people and without understanding,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.
22#Ps 119:120; Dt 28:58 Do you not fear Me? says the Lord.
Will you not tremble at My presence?
For I have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea
by a perpetual decree so that it cannot pass over it.
And though the waves toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail;
though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.
23#Jer 6:28 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they have revolted and gone aside.
24#Ge 8:22; Ps 147:8 They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear the Lord our God,
who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.
He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25#Jer 3:3 Your iniquities have turned away these things,
and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26#Pr 1:11; Jer 18:22 For among My people are found wicked men.
They lie in wait, as he who sets snares;
they set a trap, they catch men.
27As a cage is full of birds,
so are their houses full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great and rich.
28#Dt 32:15; Isa 1:23 They are fat, they are sleek.
Indeed, they excel in deeds of wickedness.
They do not judge the cause of the fatherless,
so that they may prosper;
and the right of the needy they do not defend.
29#Jer 5:9; Mal 3:5 Shall I not punish them for these things?
says the Lord.
Shall not My soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?
30#Jer 23:14; Hos 6:10 An appalling and horrible thing
has been committed in the land.
31#Eze 13:6; Mic 2:11 The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule by their own authority;
and My people love to have it so.
Yet what will you do in the end?
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