Jeremiah 5
5
The Sin of Jerusalem
1People of Jerusalem, run through your streets!
Look around! See for yourselves!
Search the market places!
Can you find one person
who does what is right
and tries to be faithful to God?
If you can, the LORD will forgive Jerusalem.
2Even though you claim to worship the LORD,
you do not mean what you say.
3Surely the LORD looks for faithfulness.
He struck you, but you paid no attention;
he crushed you, but you refused to learn.
You were stubborn and would not turn from your sins.
4Then I thought, “These are only the poor and ignorant.
They behave foolishly;
they don't know what their God requires,
what the LORD wants them to do.
5I will go to the people in power,
and talk with them.
Surely they know what their God requires,
what the LORD wants them to do.”
But all of them have rejected the LORD's authority
and refuse to obey him.
6That is why lions from the forest will kill them;
wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces,
and leopards will prowl through their towns.
If those people go out, they will be torn apart
because their sins are numerous
and time after time they have turned from God.
7The LORD asked, “Why should I forgive the sins of my people?
They have abandoned me
and have worshipped gods that are not real.
I fed my people until they were full,
but they committed adultery
and spent their time with prostitutes.
8They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire,
each lusting for his neighbour's wife.
9Shouldn't I punish them for these things
and take revenge on a nation such as this?
10I will send enemies to cut down my people's vineyards,
but not to destroy them completely.
I will tell them to strip away the branches,
because those branches are not mine.
11The people of Israel and Judah
have betrayed me completely.
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
The LORD Rejects Israel
12The LORD's people have denied him and have said, “He won't really do anything.#5.12 He won't… anything; or We don't want anything to do with him. We won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine.” 13-14They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the LORD. The LORD God Almighty said to me, “Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up.”
15People of Israel, the LORD is bringing a nation from afar to attack you. It is a strong and ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know. 16Their bowmen are mighty soldiers who kill without mercy. 17They will devour your crops and your food; they will kill your sons and your daughters. They will slaughter your flocks and your herds and destroy your vines and fig trees. The fortified cities in which you trust will be destroyed by their army.
18The LORD says, “Yet even in those days I will not completely destroy my people. 19When they ask why I did all these things, tell them, Jeremiah, that just as they turned away from me and served foreign gods in their own land, so they will serve strangers in a land that is not theirs.”
God Warns his People
20The LORD says, “Tell the descendants of Jacob, tell the people of Judah: 21#Is 6.9–10; Ezek 12.2; Mk 8.18Pay attention, you foolish and stupid people, who have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear. 22#Job 38.8–11I am the LORD; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through. 23But you people! You are stubborn and rebellious; you have turned aside and left me. 24You never thought to honour me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year. 25Instead, your sins have kept these good things from you.
26“Evildoers live among my people; they lie in wait like those who spread nets to catch birds,#5.26 Probable text they… birds; Hebrew unclear. but they have set their traps to catch people. 27Just as a hunter fills a cage with birds, they have filled their houses with loot. That is why they are powerful and rich, 28why they are fat and well fed. There is no limit to their evil deeds. They do not give orphans their rights or show justice to the oppressed.
29“But I, the LORD, will punish them for these things; I will take revenge on this nation. 30A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: 31prophets speak nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and my people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to an end?”
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 5
5
1“Diligently search the streets of Yerushalayim, and please look, and know and seek in her open places if you find a man, if there is anyone doing right-ruling, seeking the truth, then I shall pardon her.
2“Even when they say, ‘As יהוה lives,’ they swear falsely, for certain.”
3O יהוה, are Your eyes not on truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive instruction. They made their faces stronger than rock, they refused to turn back.
4Then I said, “These are only the poor. They have been foolish, for they have not known the way of יהוה, the right-ruling of their Elohim.
5“Let me go to the great men and speak to them, for they have known the way of יהוה, the right-ruling of their Elohim.” But these have altogether broken the yoke and torn off the bonds.
6Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them, a wolf of the deserts ravage them. A leopard is watching over their cities, whoever comes out of them is torn in pieces. For their transgressions have been many, their backslidings have been numerous.
7“Why should I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are not mighty ones. When I had filled them up, they then committed adultery and they thronged to the house of a whore.
8“They were like well-fed horses, every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9“Would I not punish them for this?” declares יהוה. “And would I not revenge Myself on such a nation as this?
10“Go up on her walls and destroy, but do not make a complete end. Take away her branches, for they do not belong to יהוה.
11“For the house of Yisra’ĕl and the house of Yehuḏah have utterly betrayed Me,” declares יהוה.
12They have been untrue to יהוה, and said, “It is not He. No evil comes upon us, nor do we see sword or scarcity of food.”
13And the prophets have become wind, and the Word is not in them. Thus shall be done to them:
14Therefore thus said יהוה Elohim of hosts, “Because you speak this word, see, I am making My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15“See, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Yisra’ĕl,” declares יהוה. “It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor do you understand what they say.
16“Their quiver is like an open burial-site, all of them are mighty men.
17“And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds, they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. With the sword they shall demolish your walled cities, in which you are trusting.
18“But even in those days,” declares יהוה, “I shall not make a complete end of you.
19“And it shall be, when they say, ‘Why does יהוה our Elohim do all this to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign mighty ones in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’
20“Declare this in the house of Ya‛aqoḇ and proclaim it in Yehuḏah, saying,
21Hear this now, O foolish people without heart, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not:
22Do you not fear Me?’ declares יהוה. ‘Do you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, by an everlasting law, and it does not pass over it? Though its waves toss to and fro, they are not able; though they roar, they do not pass over it.
23But this people has a backsliding and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and gone away.
24And they do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear יהוה our Elohim, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He guards for us, the required-by-law, weeks#Lit. Shaḇu‛oth. of the harvest.”
25Your crookednesses have turned these away, and your sins have kept the good from you.
26For among My people are found wrong men who lie in wait as one who sets snares. They have set up a trap, they catch men.
27As a cage is filled with birds, so their houses are filled with deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich.
28They have become fat, they are sleek. They also overlook the deeds of the wrong. They did not rightly rule the cause of the fatherless, so that they prosper. And the right of the needy they did not rightly rule.
29Would I not punish them for this?’ declares יהוה. ‘Would I not revenge Myself on such a nation as this?’
30“An astounding and horrible matter has come to be in the land:
31The prophets have prophesied falsely,#See Jer. 27:14, 15 and the priests rule by their own hand, and My people have loved it so.#See Isa. 30:10; 2Tim. 4:3 And what are you going to do at the end of it?
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