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 judgment, and seeks faithfulness; and I will pardon them, says the Lord.

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

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.

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 judgment of 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 judgment of God: but, behold, with one consent they have broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds.

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.

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.

8 They became as wanton horses: they neighed each one after his neighbor's wife.

9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.

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.

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

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.

13 Our prophets became wind, and the word of the Lord was not in 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.

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.

16 [They are] all mighty men:

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.

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

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.

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

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

23 But this people has a disobedient and rebellious heart; and they have turned aside and gone back:

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 fulfillment of the ordinance of harvest, and has preserved [it] for us.

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

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

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:

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

29 Shall I not visit for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 Shocking and horrible deeds have been done on 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.