Jeremiah 5
1 Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can fins a man that executeth judgement, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.
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.
2 And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.
And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false.
3 O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.
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.
4 But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.
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.
5 I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God: and behold these have together broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.
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.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening, hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.
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.
7 How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot’s house.
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.
8 They are become as amorous horses and stallions, every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
10 Scale down the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord’s.
Go up against her vines and make waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.
11 For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been very false to me, says the Lord.
12 They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.
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:
13 The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.
And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them.
14 Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.
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.
15 Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.
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.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.
Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war.
17 And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.
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.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.
But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your destruction be complete.
19 And if you shall say: why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.
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.
20 Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:
Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying,
21 Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.
Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing:
22 Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.
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.
23 But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are broken loose and gone.
24 And they have not said in their heart: let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fullness of the yearly harvest.
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.
25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.
27 As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.
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.
28 They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, they have not judged the judgement of the poor.
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.
29 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
30 Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.
A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;
31 The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?
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?
