Jeremias 5

1 Run you about in the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in her broad places, if you can find [one], if there is any one that does judgement, and seeks faithfulness; and I will pardon them, says the Lord.

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 The Lord lives, they say; do they not therefore swear falsely?

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

3 O Lord, your eyes are upon faithfulness: you have scourged them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them; but they would not receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; and they would not return.

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, It may be they are poor; for they are weak, for they know not the way of the Lord, or the judgement of 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 rich men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgement of God: but, behold, with one consent they have broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds.

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 has a lion out of the forest struck them, and a wolf has destroyed them even to [their] houses, and a leopard has watched against their cities: all that go forth from them shall be hunted: for they have multiplied their ungodliness, they have strengthened themselves in their revoltings.

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 In what [way] shall I forgive you for these things? Your sons have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: and I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and lodged in harlots' houses.

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 became as wanton horses: they neighed each one after his neighbour's wife.

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

9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged 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 upon her battlements, and break [them] down; but make not a full end: leave her buttresses: for they are the Lord's.

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 have indeed dealt treacherously against me, says the Lord: the house of Juda also

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

12 have lied to their Lord, and they have said, These things are not so; no evils shall come upon us; and we shall 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 Our prophets became wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them.

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

14 Therefore thus says the Lord Almighty, Because you have spoken this word, behold, I have made my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

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 [will] bring upon you a nation from far, O house of Israel, says the Lord; a nation the sound of whose language one shall 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 [They are] all mighty men:

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

17 and they shall devour your harvest, and your bread; and shall devour your sons, and your daughters; and they shall devour your sheep, and your calves, and devour your vineyards, and your fig-plantations, and your olive yards: and they shall utterly destroy your strong cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.

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 And it shall come to pass in those days, says the Lord your God, that I will not utterly destroy you.

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

19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Therefore has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you shall say to them, Because you served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

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 Proclaim these things to the house of Jacob, and let them be heard in the house of Juda.

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

21 Hear you now these things, O foolish and senseless people; who have eyes, and see not; and have ears, and hear not:

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 will you not be afraid of me? says the Lord; and will you not fear before me, who have set the sand for a bound to the sea, [as] a perpetual ordinance, and it shall not pass it: yes, it shall rage, but not prevail; and its waves shall roar, but not pass over 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 this people has a disobedient and rebellious heart; and they have turned aside and gone back:

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

24 and they have not said in their heart, Let us fear now the Lord our God, who gives us the early and latter rain, according to the season of the fulfilment of the ordinance of harvest, and has preserved [it] for us.

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 transgressions have turned away these things, and your sins have removed good things from you.

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

26 For amongst my people were found ungodly men; and they have set snares to destroy men, and have caught [them].

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 As a snare which has been set is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore have they grown great, and become rich:

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

28 and they have transgressed [the rule of] judgement; they have not judged the cause of the orphan, nor have they judged the cause of the widow.

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 Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged 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 Shocking and horrible deeds have been done on the land;

An astonishing and horrible thing hath been in the land.

31 the prophets utter unrighteous prophecies, and the priests have clapped their hands: and my people has loved [to have it] thus: and what will you do for the future.

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?