Jeremiah 5

English Standard Version

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5 ^(A)Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    ^(B)if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
^(C)that I may pardon her.
²^(D)Though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
    ^(E)yet they swear falsely.
³O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^(F)You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
^(G)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;
^(H)for they do not know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.
⁵I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
    the justice of their God.”
^(I)But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore ^(J)a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a ^(K)wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
^(L)A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their ^(M)apostasies are great.

⁷^(N)“How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    ^(O)and have sworn by those who are no gods.
^(P)When I fed them to the full,
    ^(Q)they committed adultery
    ^(R)and trooped to the houses of whores.
⁸They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    ^(S)each neighing ^(T)for his neighbor's wife.
⁹^(U)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

¹⁰^(V)“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    ^(W)but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the Lord's.
¹¹^(X)For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
declares the Lord.
¹²They have spoken falsely of the Lord
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
^(Y)no disaster will come upon us,
    ^(Z)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!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

¹⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, ^(AA)I am making my words in your mouth ^(AB)a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
¹⁵^(AC)Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
    ^(AD)nor can you understand what they say.
¹⁶^(AE)Their quiver is like ^(AF)an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
¹⁷^(AG)They 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 ^(AH)fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

¹⁸“But even in those days, declares the Lord, ^(AI)I will not make a full end of you. ¹⁹And when your people say, ^(AJ)‘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, ^(AK)so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
²¹“Hear this, ^(AL)O foolish and senseless people,
    ^(AM)who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
²²^(AN)Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand ^(AO)as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though ^(AP)they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³^(AQ)But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
^(AR)who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    ^(AS)the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
²⁵^(AT)Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
²⁶For wicked men are found among my people;
    ^(AU)they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.^[a]
^(AV)They set a trap;
    they catch men.
²⁷Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
²⁸    ^(AW)they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    ^(AX)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^(AY)Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

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