Jeremiah 5:3-6
New English Translation
3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness.[a]
But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse.[b]
Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.
They have become as hardheaded as a rock.[c]
They refuse to change their ways.[d]
4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way.[e]
They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands.[f]
They do not know what their God requires of them.[g]
5 I will go to the leaders[h]
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands.[i]
Surely they know what their God requires of them.”[j]
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him.[k]
6 So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them.
Like a wolf from the rift valley they will destroy them.
Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities
and totally destroy anyone who ventures out.[l]
For they have rebelled so much
and done so many unfaithful things.[m]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 5:3 tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
- Jeremiah 5:3 tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.
- Jeremiah 5:3 tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”
- Jeremiah 5:3 tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”
- Jeremiah 5:4 tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.
- Jeremiah 5:4 tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”
- Jeremiah 5:4 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
- Jeremiah 5:5 tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”
- Jeremiah 5:5 tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”
- Jeremiah 5:5 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
- Jeremiah 5:5 tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Cf. Jer 2:20 and the note there.
- Jeremiah 5:6 tn Heb “So a lion from the thicket will kill them. A wolf from the desert will destroy them. A leopard will watch outside their cities. Anyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces.” However, it is unlikely that, in the context of judgment that Jeremiah has previously been describing, literal lions are meant. The animals are metaphorical for their enemies. Cf. Jer 4:7.
- Jeremiah 5:6 tn Heb “their rebellions are so many, and their unfaithful acts so numerous.”
Jeremiah 5:3-6
Common English Bible
3 Lord, don’t you look for integrity?
You have struck them down,
but they didn’t even cringe.
You have crushed them,
but they have ignored your discipline.
They make their faces harder than rock
and refuse to return.
4 Then I thought to myself,
These are the poor who don’t know better!
They don’t understand the Lord’s way
or the justice of their God.
5 Let me go and speak to the powerful people,
for they will surely know the Lord’s way
and the justice of their God.
But they too have broken their yoke
and shattered the chains.
6 Therefore, a lion from the forest will attack them;
a wolf from the desert will destroy them;
a leopard prowling around their towns
will tear to pieces anyone venturing out—
because of their many crimes
and countless acts of unfaithfulness.
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