Jeremias 5

¹ Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in her open places, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon her.

² And though they say, [As] the LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

³ O LORD, [are] not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ So I said, Surely these [are] poor; they are foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD, [nor] the judgment of their God.

⁵ I will go up for myself 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 broken the yoke together and have torn off the bonds!

⁶ Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, [and] a wolf of the deserts shall rob them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them shall be torn in pieces, because their sins are many [and] their backslidings are multiplied.

⁷ Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

⁸ They were [like] lusty, well-fed stallions in the morning; every one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

⁹ Shall I not judge for these [things]? says the LORD. And shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ Go up on her vine-rows and destroy; but do not make a full end; take away her branches, for they [are] not the LORD's.

¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very deceitfully against Me, says the LORD.

¹² They have lied against the LORD and said, [It is] not He; neither shall evil come on us; nor shall we see sword nor famine.

¹³ And the prophets shall become wind, and the word [is] not in them; so it shall be done to them.

¹⁴ Therefore so says Jehovah, God of hosts, Because you spoke this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and these people wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a nation on you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD. It [is] an enduring nation, it [is] an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver [is] as an open grave; they [are] all mighty men.

¹⁷ And they shall eat up Your harvest and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees. One shall beat down your fortified cities with the sword, those in which you trust.

¹⁸ But even in those days, says Jehovah, I will not make a complete end with you.

¹⁹ And it will be, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God do all these things] to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is] not yours.

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob, and cry it in Judah, saying,

²¹ Now hear this, O foolish people and without heart; who have eyes and see not; who have ears and hear not;

²² Do you not fear Me? says the LORD. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand [for] the boundary of the sea [by] a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?

²³ But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

²⁴ And they do not say in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives both the former and the latter rain in its season; He reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵ Your iniquities have turned away these [things], and your sins have withheld good from you.

²⁶ For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷ Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

²⁸ They have become fat, they shine. Yes, they go past the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may get rich; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

²⁹ Shall I not visit for these [things]? says the LORD. Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰ An astounding and horrible thing has happened in the land.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love [to have it] so, and what will you do at the end of it?