Jeremiah 5
1 Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness.
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, And see I pray you and know and seek out in the broad places thereof, Whether ye can find, a man, Whether there is one Doing justice Demanding fidelity, —That I may pardon her.
2 And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false.
Even though they say By the life of Yahweh, Yet in fact falsely, do they swear.
3 O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back.
O Yahweh! thine own eyes, are they not directed to fidelity? Thou hast smitten them Yet have they not grieved, Thou hast consumed them—They have refused to receive correction, —They have made their faces bolder than a cliff, They have refused to return.
4 Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God.
And, I, said, —Only, poor people, are they, —They act foolishly, For they know not the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God!
5 I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands.
I will betake me unto the great men, and will speak, with them! For, they, know the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God! Yea but, they, with one accord have broken the yoke, torn off the bands.
6 And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.
For this cause, hath the lion out of the forest smitten them, The wolf of the waste plains, preyeth upon them, The leopard, is keeping watch over their cities, Every one that goeth out from thence, is torn in pieces, —For they have multiplied their transgressions, Numerous are their apostasies.
7 How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women.
How, for this, can I pardon thee? Thine own sons, have forsaken me, And have sworn by No-gods, —When I had fed them to the full, Then committed they adultery, And the house of the unchaste woman, they used to throng:
8 They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife.
Lusty, well-fed horses, had they become, Every man unto his neighbour’s wife, would neigh!
9 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
For these things, shall I not punish? Demandeth Yahweh: Yea on a nation such as this, must not my soul avenge herself?
10 Go up against her vines and make waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.
Scale ye her walls and destroy, But a full end, do not make, —Remove her tendrils, For not to Yahweh, do, they, belong!
11 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been very false to me, says the Lord.
For very treacherously, have the house of Israel and the house of Judah dealt with me, Declareth Yahweh.
12 They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not see the sword or be short of food:
They have acted deceptively against Yahweh, And have said, Not He! Neither shall there come upon us, calamity, Nor sword nor famine, shall we see;
13 And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them.
But the prophets, shall prove to be wind, And there is no one speaking in them, —Thus, shall it be done to themselves!
14 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said: Because you have said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they will be burned up by it.
Therefore, Thus, saith Yahweh, God of hosts, Because ye have spoken this word, —Behold me! making my words in thy mouth to be fire, And, this people, —wood, So shall it devour them.
15 See, I will send you a nation from far away, O people of Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old nation, a nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not get the sense of their words.
Behold me! bringing upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, Declareth Yahweh, —A nation invincible, it is, A nation from age-past times, hath it been, A nation whose tongue thou shalt not know, Neither shalt thou understand what it speaketh:
16 Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war.
Its quiver, is like an open sepulchre, —They all, are heroes:
17 They will take all the produce of your fields, which would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they will take your flocks and your herds: they will take all your vines and your fig-trees: and with the sword they will make waste your walled towns in which you put your faith.
Then shall it eat thy harvest and thy bread which thy sons and thy daughters should eat, —It shall eat thy flock and thy herd, It shall eat thy vine and thy fig-tree, —It shall destroy thy defenced cities wherein thou, art trusting, with the sword.
18 But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your destruction be complete.
Yet, even in those days, Declareth Yahweh, Will I not make of you, a full end.
19 And it will come about, when you say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them, As you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange gods in your land, so will you be servants to strange men in a land which is not yours.
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, For what cause hath Yahweh our God done to us all these things? Then shalt thou say unto them, —As ye forsook me, and served the gods of the foreigner in your own land, So, shall ye serve aliens in a land not your own.
20 Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying,
Tell ye this, throughout the house of Jacob, —And let it be heard throughout Judah saying:
21 Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing:
Hear this, I pray you ye people—foolish and without heart, —Eyes, have they, and see not, Ears, have they, and hear not!
22 Have you no fear of me? says the Lord; will you not be shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as a limit for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it? and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way; though the sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go past it.
Even for me, will ye have no reverence? Enquireth Yahweh, And because of me, will ye not be pained? In that though I placed the sand as a bound to the sea, A decree age-abiding, and it should not pass beyond it, —When they would toss themselves Then should they not prevail, When the waves thereof would roar Then should they not pass beyond it,
23 But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are broken loose and gone.
Yet, this people hath an obstinate and rebellious heart, —They have turned aside, and gone their way;
24 And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us give worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the spring rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered weeks of the grain-cutting.
Neither have they said in their heart, —Let us we pray you, revere Yahweh our God, Who giveth rain, even the early and the latter, in its season, —The appointed weeks of harvest, he reserveth for us.
25 Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you.
Your iniquities, have thrust away these things, Yea, your sins, have withholden that which is good from you.
26 For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.
For there have been found among my people lawless men, —One lieth in wait, as with the stooping of fowlers, They have set a trap, they capture men:
27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth.
As, a cage, is full of birds, So, are, their houses, full of unrighteous gain, —For this cause, have they become great and waxen rich:
28 They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.
They have waxed fat, they shine Yea they have overpassed the records of wickedness. The right, have they not determined, the right of the fatherless that they might prosper, —Yea justice to the helpless, have they not decreed.
29 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
Upon these things, shall I not bring punishment? Demandeth Yahweh. Or, on a nation such as this, shall not my soul avenge herself?
30 A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;
An astounding and horrible thing, hath been brought to pass in the land:
31 The prophets give false words and the priests give decisions by their direction; and my people are glad to have it so: and what will you do in the end?
The prophets, have prophesied, falsely, And the priests tread down by their means, And, my people, love it, so, —What then can ye do as to her latter end?
