Jeremiah 5
Authorized (King James) Version
5 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof,
if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment,
that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The Lord liveth;
surely they swear falsely.
3 O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?
thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved;
thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction:
they have made their faces harder than a rock;
they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish:
for they know not the way of the Lord,
nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto 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 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them,
and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them,
a leopard shall watch over their cities:
every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces:
because their transgressions are many,
and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon thee for this?
thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods:
when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery,
and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning:
every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord:
and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy;
but make not a full end:
take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord.
12 They have belied the Lord, and said,
It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us;
neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13 and the prophets shall become wind,
and the word is not in them:
thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
Because ye speak this word,
behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire,
and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far,
O house of Israel, saith the Lord:
it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language thou knowest not,
neither understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre,
they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread,
which thy sons and thy daughters should eat:
they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds:
they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees:
they shall impoverish thy fenced cities,
wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye 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 now this, O foolish people,
and without understanding;
which have eyes, and see not;
which have ears, and hear not:
22 fear ye not me? saith the Lord:
will ye not tremble at my presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea
by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it:
and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail;
though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart,
Let us now fear the Lord our God,
that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season:
he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things,
and your sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men:
they lay wait, as he that setteth snares;
they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
28 They are waxen fat, they shine:
yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked:
they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper;
and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord:
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed 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 ye do in the end thereof?
Jeremiah 5
New Living Translation
The Sins of Judah
5 “Run up and down every street in Jerusalem,” says the Lord.
“Look high and low; search throughout the city!
If you can find even one just and honest person,
I will not destroy the city.
2 But even when they are under oath,
saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’
they are still telling lies!”
3 Lord, you are searching for honesty.
You struck your people,
but they paid no attention.
You crushed them,
but they refused to be corrected.
They are determined, with faces set like stone;
they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “But what can we expect from the poor?
They are ignorant.
They don’t know the ways of the Lord.
They don’t understand God’s laws.
5 So I will go and speak to their leaders.
Surely they know the ways of the Lord
and understand God’s laws.”
But the leaders, too, as one man,
had thrown off God’s yoke
and broken his chains.
6 So now a lion from the forest will attack them;
a wolf from the desert will pounce on them.
A leopard will lurk near their towns,
tearing apart any who dare to venture out.
For their rebellion is great,
and their sins are many.
7 “How can I pardon you?
For even your children have turned from me.
They have sworn by gods that are not gods at all!
I fed my people until they were full.
But they thanked me by committing adultery
and lining up at the brothels.
8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for this?” says the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?
10 “Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy the grapevines,
leaving a scattered few alive.
Strip the branches from the vines,
for these people do not belong to the Lord.
11 The people of Israel and Judah
are full of treachery against me,”
says the Lord.
12 “They have lied about the Lord
and said, ‘He won’t bother us!
No disasters will come upon us.
There will be no war or famine.
13 God’s prophets are all windbags
who don’t really speak for him.
Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’”
14 Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies says:
“Because the people are talking like this,
my messages will flame out of your mouth
and burn the people like kindling wood.
15 O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you,”
says the Lord.
“It is a mighty nation,
an ancient nation,
a people whose language you do not know,
whose speech you cannot understand.
16 Their weapons are deadly;
their warriors are mighty.
17 They will devour the food of your harvest;
they will devour your sons and daughters.
They will devour your flocks and herds;
they will devour your grapes and figs.
And they will destroy your fortified towns,
which you think are so safe.
18 “Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,” says the Lord. 19 “And when your people ask, ‘Why did the Lord our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’
A Warning for God’s People
20 “Make this announcement to Israel,[a]
and say this to Judah:
21 Listen, you foolish and senseless people,
with eyes that do not see
and ears that do not hear.
22 Have you no respect for me?
Why don’t you tremble in my presence?
I, the Lord, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline
as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross.
The waves may toss and roar,
but they can never pass the boundaries I set.
23 But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.
They have turned away and abandoned me.
24 They do not say from the heart,
‘Let us live in awe of the Lord our God,
for he gives us rain each spring and fall,
assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’
25 Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings.
Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.
26 “Among my people are wicked men
who lie in wait for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind.
They continually set traps
to catch people.
27 Like a cage filled with birds,
their homes are filled with evil plots.
And now they are great and rich.
28 They are fat and sleek,
and there is no limit to their wicked deeds.
They refuse to provide justice to orphans
and deny the rights of the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for this?” says the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?
30 A horrible and shocking thing
has happened in this land—
31 the prophets give false prophecies,
and the priests rule with an iron hand.
Worse yet, my people like it that way!
But what will you do when the end comes?
Footnotes
- 5:20 Hebrew to the house of Jacob. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation.
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
