Jeremiah 5:16-31

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁶ Their quiver is like an open grave,
they are all mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will eat up your harvest and your bread,
they will eat up your sons and your daughters,
they will eat up your flocks and your herds,
they will eat up your vines and your fig trees;
with the sword they will beat down
your fortified cities, in which you trust.
¹⁸ But even in those days,” says Adonai,
“I will not completely destroy you.
¹⁹ And when your people ask, ‘Why has Adonai
our God done all these things to us?’
you are to give them this answer:
‘Just as you abandoned me
and served strange gods in your own land,
so likewise you will serve strangers
in a land that is not your own.’
²⁰ Announce this in the house of Ya‘akov,
proclaim it in Y’hudah; say:
²¹ ‘Hear this, stupid, brainless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear:
²² Don’t you fear me? — says Adonai.
Won’t you tremble at my presence?
I made the shore the limit for the sea;
by eternal decree it cannot pass.
Its waves may toss, but to no avail;
although they roar, they cannot cross it.
²³ But this people has a rebellious, defiant heart;
they have rebelled and gone!
²⁴ They don’t say to themselves,
“Let’s fear Adonai our God,
who gives the fall and spring rains in season,
who reserves us the weeks assigned for harvest.”
²⁵ Your crimes have overturned nature’s rules,
your sins have kept back good from you.’
²⁶ “For among my people there are wicked men,
who, like fowlers, lie in wait and set traps
to catch their fellow human beings.
²⁷ Their houses are as full of fraud
as a cage full of birds.
They grow rich and great, ²⁸ sleek and bloated;
they excel in acts of wickedness
but do not plead on behalf of the orphan,
thus enabling his cause to succeed;
nor do they judge in favor of the poor.