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 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 And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

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

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.

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 But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement 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 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 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 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.

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 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.

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 become as amorous horses and stallions, every one neighed after his neighbor’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, sayeth the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

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 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 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 Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

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

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 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 have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

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

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 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.

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 quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

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

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.

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 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.

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

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 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 ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:

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

21 Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and 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 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.

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 the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

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

Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have kept the 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 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 net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.

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

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 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, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

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

30 Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

An astonishing and horrible thing hath been 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 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?