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
1“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. 2Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”
3 O LORD, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were 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 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the LORD’s way, nor the law of their God. 5I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.
7“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. 8They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbour’s wife. 9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10“Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.
12 They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine. 13The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”
14 Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them. 15Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say. 16Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men. 17They 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 beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.
18“But even in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you. 19It will happen when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear: 22Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’
23“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone. 24They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you. 26For wicked men are found amongst my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. 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 grew rich. 28They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.
29“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land. 31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
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