Jeremiah 5

1 “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

Go to and fro in streets of Jerusalem, And see, I pray you, and know, And seek in her broad places, if ye find a man, If there be one doing judgment, seeking stedfastness — Then am I propitious to her.

2 Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are swearing falsely.”

And if they say, 'Jehovah liveth,' Surely to a falsehood they swear.

3 O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

Jehovah, Thine eyes, are they not on stedfastness? Thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved, Thou hast consumed them, They have refused to receive instruction, They made their faces harder than a rock, They have refused to turn back.

4 Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

And I — I said, 'Surely these [are] poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.

5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

I get me to the great, and I speak with them, For they have known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.' Surely they together have broken the yoke, They have drawn away the bands.

6 Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

Therefore smitten them hath a lion out of the forest, A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them, A leopard is watching over their cities, Every one who is going out of them is torn, For many have been their transgressions, Mighty have been their backslidings.

7 “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

For this I am not propitious to thee, Thy sons have forsaken Me, And are satisfied by that which is not god, I satisfy them, and they commit adultery, And at the house of a harlot They gather themselves together.

8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

Fed horses — they have been early risers, Each to the wife of his neighbour they neigh.

9 Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

For these do I not lay a charge? An affirmation of Jehovah, And on a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?

10 Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.

Go ye up on her walls, and destroy, And a completion make not, Turn aside her branches, for they [are] not Jehovah's,

11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to Me,”

For dealt treacherously against Me have the house of Israel, And the house of Judah, an affirmation of Jehovah.

12 They have lied about the LORD and said: “He will not do anything; harm will not come to us; we will not see sword or famine.

They have lied against Jehovah, And they say, '[It is] not He, Nor come in against us doth evil, Yea, sword and famine we do not see.

13 The prophets are but wind, for the word is not in them. So let their own predictions befall them.”

And the prophets become wind, And the word is not in them,' — thus it is done by them.

14 Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah, God of Hosts, Because of your speaking this word, Lo, I am making My words in thy mouth become fire, And this people wood, and it hath devoured them.

15 Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

Lo, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah, A nation — strong it [is], a nation — from of old it [is], A nation — thou knowest not its tongue, Nor understandest what it speaketh.

16 Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.

Its quiver [is] as an open sepulchre, All of them — mighty ones.

17 They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”

And it hath consumed thy harvest and thy bread, They consume thy sons, and thy daughters, It consumeth thy flock, and thy herd, It consumeth thy vine, and thy fig-tree, It maketh poor thy fenced cities, In which thou art trusting — by the sword.

18 “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

And even in those days, an affirmation of Jehovah, I do not make you a completion.

19 And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”

And it hath come to pass, when ye say, 'For what hath Jehovah our God done to us all these?' That thou hast said unto them, 'As ye have forsaken Me, And serve the gods of a foreigner in your land, So do ye serve strangers in a land not yours.

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah:

Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, And sound ye it in Judah, saying,

21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

Hear ye, I pray you, this, O people, foolish and without heart, Eyes they have, and they see not, Ears they have, and they hear not.

22 Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

Me do ye not fear, an affirmation of Jehovah? From My presence are ye not pained? Who hath made sand the border of the sea, A limit age-during, and it passeth not over it, They shake themselves, and they are not able, Yea, sounded have its billows, and they pass not over.

23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.

And this people hath an apostate and rebellious heart, They have turned aside, and they go on.

24 They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

And they have not said in their heart, 'Let us fear, we pray you, Jehovah our God, who is giving rain, The sprinkling and the gathered, in its season, The appointed weeks of harvest He keepeth for us.'

25 Your iniquities have diverted these from you; your sins have deprived you of My bounty.

Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have kept the good from you.

26 For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

For the wicked have been found among My people. It looketh about the covering of snares, They have set up a trap — men they capture.

27 Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

As a cage full of fowls, So their houses are full of deceit, Therefore they have been great, and are rich.

28 They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

They have been fat, they have shone, Yea, they have overpassed the acts of the evil, Judgment they have not judged, The judgment of the fatherless — and they prosper, And the judgment of the needy they have not judged.

29 Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

For these do not I inspect, an affirmation of Jehovah, On a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?

30 A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.

An astonishing and horrible thing hath been in the land.

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

The prophets have prophesied falsely, And the priests bear rule by their means, And My people have loved [it] so, And what do they at its latter end?