Jeremiah 5:20-31

Revised Standard Version

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob,
    proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
²² Do you not fear me? says the Lord;
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the bound for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier which it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail,
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³ But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
²⁶ For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.^[a]
They set a trap;
    they catch men.
²⁷ Like a basket full of birds,
    their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
²⁸     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness;
    they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?
                says the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹ the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?