Jeremiah 5
Legacy Standard Bible
Jerusalem Refuses to Repent
5 “(A)Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And see now and know,
And seek in her open squares,
If you can (B)find a man,
(C)If there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness,
Then I will pardon her.
2 And (D)if they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’
Then they swear to a lie.”
3 O Yahweh, do not (E)Your eyes look for faithfulness?
You have (F)struck them,
But they did not [a]weaken;
You have consumed them,
But they (G)refused to receive discipline.
They have (H)made their faces stronger than rock;
They have refused to [b]repent.
4 Then I said, “They are only the poor;
They are foolish;
For they (I)do not know the way of Yahweh
Or the legal judgment of their God.
5 Let me go to the great
And let me speak to them,
For (J)they know the way of Yahweh
And the legal judgment of their God.”
But they too, altogether, have (K)broken the yoke
And torn apart the bonds.
6 Therefore (L)a lion from the forest will strike them down;
A (M)wolf of the deserts will devastate them;
A (N)leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces
Because their (O)transgressions are many;
Their acts of faithlessness are mighty.
7 “Why should I pardon you?
Your sons have forsaken Me
And (P)sworn by those who are (Q)not gods.
I had satisfied them to the full,
Then they (R)committed adultery
And trooped to the harlot’s house.
8 They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his (S)neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not punish [c]these people,” declares Yahweh,
“And on a nation such as this
(T)Shall I not avenge Myself?
10 “Go up through her vine rows and make them a ruin,
But do not make a complete destruction;
Remove her branches,
For they are not Yahweh’s.
11 For the (U)house of Israel and the house of Judah
Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares Yahweh.
12 They have (V)dealt falsely about Yahweh
And said, “[d](W)Not He;
Calamity will (X)not come on us,
And we (Y)will not see sword or famine.
13 The (Z)prophets are as wind,
And the word is not in them.
Thus it will be done to them!”
A Stubborn and Rebellious People
14 Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts,
“Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am (AA)making My words in your mouth fire
And this people wood, and it will devour them.
15 Behold, I am (AB)bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares Yahweh.
“It is an enduring nation;
It is an ancient nation,
A nation whose (AC)tongue you do not know,
Nor can you [e]understand what they say.
16 Their (AD)quiver is like an (AE)open grave;
All of them are mighty men.
17 They will (AF)devour your harvest and your food;
They will devour your sons and your daughters;
They will devour your flocks and your herds;
They will devour your (AG)vines and your fig trees;
They will demolish with the sword your (AH)fortified cities in which you trust.
18 “Yet even in those days,” declares Yahweh, “I will not make you a complete destruction. 19 It shall come about (AI)when [f]they say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will (AJ)serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob
And cause it to be heard in Judah, saying,
21 ‘Now hear this, O people who are simpleminded fools and without a heart of wisdom,
Who have (AK)eyes but do not see,
Who have ears but do not hear.
22 Do you not (AL)fear Me?’ declares Yahweh.
‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
For I have (AM)placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
A perpetual statute, so it cannot cross over it.
Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
23 But this people has a (AN)stubborn and rebellious heart;
They have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their heart,
“Let us now fear Yahweh our God,
Who (AO)gives rain in its season,
Both (AP)the [g]early rain and the [h]late rain,
Who keeps for us
The (AQ)appointed weeks of the harvest.”
25 Your (AR)iniquities have turned these away,
And your sins have withheld good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among My people;
They (AS)watch like fowlers [i]lying in wait;
They set a [j]trap;
They catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
So their houses are full of (AT)deceit;
Therefore they have become great and rich.
28 They are (AU)fat, they are sleek;
They also [k]excel in deeds of evil;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the [l](AV)orphan, that they may succeed;
And they do not [m]render justice for the poor.
29 (AW)Shall I not punish [n]these people?’ declares Yahweh,
‘On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?’
30 “A horrible and (AX)appalling thing
Has happened in the land:
31 The (AY)prophets prophesy with lying,
And the priests have dominion [o]by their own hand;
And My people (AZ)love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 5:3 Or become sick
- Jeremiah 5:3 Lit return
- Jeremiah 5:9 Or for these things
- Jeremiah 5:12 Lit He is not
- Jeremiah 5:15 Lit hear
- Jeremiah 5:19 Or you
- Jeremiah 5:24 Autumn
- Jeremiah 5:24 Spring
- Jeremiah 5:26 Lit subside
- Jeremiah 5:26 Lit destruction
- Jeremiah 5:28 Or overlook deeds; lit pass over
- Jeremiah 5:28 Or fatherless
- Jeremiah 5:28 Lit judge
- Jeremiah 5:29 Or for these things
- Jeremiah 5:31 Lit over their own hands
Jeremiah 5
Evangelical Heritage Version
A Dialogue About Jerusalem’s Sin
The Lord[a]
5 Hurry here and there through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note.
Search her public squares.
See if you can find just one person who deals justly
and who seeks to be faithful.
If you can, I will forgive her.
2 Though they say, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
they are still swearing falsely.
The Prophet
3 Lord, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness?
You struck them,
but they felt no pain.
You crushed them,
but they refused discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock
and refused to repent.
4 Then I said:
These are only the poor.
They are foolish,
because they do not know the way of the Lord
and the just verdict of their God.
5 I will go to the great men and speak to them.
Certainly they know the way of the Lord,
the just verdict of their God.
But all of them together have broken the yoke
and have torn off their chains.
6 That is why a lion from the forest will strike them.
A wolf from the desert will attack them,
and a leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who comes out of them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellions are so many,
and their unfaithfulness is so great.
The Lord
7 Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me
and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I satisfied their needs,
yet they committed adultery
and crowded into prostitutes’ houses.
8 They are well-fed, lusty[b] stallions,
each one neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for this? declares the Lord.
Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this one?
10 Go through her vineyards and destroy them,
but do not destroy them completely.
Cut away the branches,
because they do not belong to the Lord.
11 The house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been completely unfaithful to me, declares the Lord.
12 They have lied about the Lord.
They say, “He is nothing.
No disaster will come upon us.
We will not see sword or famine.
13 The prophets are only wind.
The word is not in them,
so let what they say come upon them.”[c]
14 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, says.
Because they have said this,
I will make my words in your mouth a fire.
These people are the wood, and it will burn them up.
15 Now, O house of Israel, I am bringing against you
a nation from far away, declares the Lord.
I am bringing an enduring nation, an ancient nation.
They are a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open grave.
They are all strong warriors.
17 They will consume your harvest and your bread.
They will consume your sons and daughters.
They will consume your flocks and herds,
and they will consume your vines and fig trees.
With their swords they will beat down your fortified cities,
the places in which you trust.
18 Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not destroy you completely. 19 When the people ask, “Why has the Lord our God done this to us?” answer them, “Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.”
20 Declare this to the house of Jacob!
Proclaim it in Judah!
21 Hear this, you foolish, senseless people!
You have eyes but you cannot see.
You have ears but you cannot hear.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I made sand as the boundary for the sea,
a permanent barrier that it cannot cross.
The waves toss back and forth,
but they cannot get past it.
The towering waves crash,
but they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart.
They have turned aside and wandered away.
24 They do not say to themselves,
“We should fear the Lord our God,
who sends autumn rains and spring rains at the right time,
who reserves for us enough weeks for the harvest.”
25 But your guilty actions have kept these things at a distance.
Your sins have kept these good things away from you.
26 Wicked men are found among my people.
Like men who trap birds, they lie in wait for my people
to set traps and catch people.[d]
27 Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit.
That is how they became powerful and rich.
28 They have become fat and sleek.
They have gone beyond evil words.[e]
They do not argue a case for the fatherless to help them win,
and they do not seek justice for the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord.
Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this one?
30 A terrible thing has taken place.
A horrible thing has happened in the land.
31 Prophets prophesy lies,
priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love this.
But what will you do in the end?
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 5:1 The Hebrew text does not provide introductory words to mark the frequent changes of speaker. The translation provides headings to help the reader track these changes.
- Jeremiah 5:8 The meaning of each of these two adjectives is uncertain.
- Jeremiah 5:13 This closing quotation mark may be placed at the end of verse 12.
- Jeremiah 5:26 The meanings of two Hebrew words in this verse are uncertain.
- Jeremiah 5:28 Or their evil deeds overflow
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The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.