Jeremiah 5:1-19

Revised Standard Version

The Utter Corruption of God’s People

5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth;
that I may pardon her.
²Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
³O Lord, do not thy eyes look for truth?
Thou hast smitten them,
    but they felt no anguish;
thou hast consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “These are only the poor,
    they have no sense;
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the law of their God.
⁵I will go to the great,
    and will speak to them;
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the law of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke,
    they had burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them,
    a wolf from the desert shall destroy them.
A leopard is watching against their cities,
    every one who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces;
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great.

⁷“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me,
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of harlots.
⁸They were well-fed lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?
                says the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine-rows and destroy,
    but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the Lord’s.
¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly faithless to me,
                says the Lord.
¹²They have spoken falsely of the Lord,
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no evil will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
¹³The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

¹⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because they^[a] have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.
¹⁵Behold, I am bringing upon you
    a nation 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 can you understand what they say.
¹⁶Their quiver is like an open tomb,
    they are all mighty men.
¹⁷They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall destroy with the sword.”

¹⁸“But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹And when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’”

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Footnotes

Jeremiah 5:14 Heb you

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.