Jeremiah 5
1 [Yahweh said to the people of Jerusalem], “Go up and down every street. Search in the marketplaces to find people who do what is fair/right, who try to be faithful to me. [If you find even one person like that], I will forgive [the people of Jerusalem and not destroy] their city.
Run ye about in the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in her broad places, if ye can find [one], if there is any one that does judgment, and seeks faithfulness; and I will pardon them, saith the Lord.
2 But when people there say, ‘I solemnly declare that as surely as Yahweh lives, [I will do what he says],’ they are lying.”
The Lord lives, they say; do they not therefore swear falsely?
3 Yahweh, you are certainly [RHQ] searching for [people who tell the] truth. You struck/punished your people, but they did not pay any attention. You crushed them, but they ignored what you were telling them to do. They were extremely stubborn [IDM] and refused to return to you.
O Lord, thine eyes are upon faithfulness: thou hast scourged them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them; but they would not receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; and they would not return.
4 I thought, “[We cannot expect] these [people to act righteously, because they] are poor; they do not have any sense. They do not know the way Yahweh wants them to conduct their lives; they do not know what God requires them to do.
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 So, I will go and talk to their leaders, because they [surely] know how God wants them to conduct their lives.” But they also have stopped obeying Yahweh [MET], and they will not allow him to lead them.
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 Because of that, lions will come out of the forests and kill them; wolves from the desert will attack them; leopards that lurk/wait outside their cities will maul anyone who walks outside the cities. [Those things will happen] because the people have sinned very much against God and have turned away from him very frequently.
Therefore has a lion out of the forest smitten 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 Yahweh says, “I cannot [RHQ] forgive these people; [even] their children have abandoned me. When they solemnly declare something, they ask their gods [to show that what they say is true]. I gave my people everything that they needed, but they often went to [the shrines of their idols] and committed adultery there.
In what [way] shall I forgive thee for these things? Thy 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 [Just like] [MET] well-fed male horses neigh, wanting sex with female horses, each of the men desires to have sex with his neighbor’s wife.
They became as wanton horses: they neighed each one after his neighbour's wife.
9 (Should I not punish them for this [RHQ]?/I will certainly get revenge on this nation for this!) I will certainly get revenge [RHQ] on this nation whose people behave like that!
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.
10 [I will say to your enemies], ‘The people [of Judah and Israel are like a vineyard]. Go along the rows in their vineyards and get rid of [most of] the people, but do not kill all of them. These people do not belong to me, [so get rid of them], [like a gardener] [MET] lops/cuts off branches from a vine.
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 The people of Israel and Judah have turned away from me completely.’
For the house of Israel have indeed dealt treacherously against me, saith the Lord: the house of Juda also
12 They have lied about me and said, ‘He will not punish us! He will not cause us to experience disasters! We will not experience wars or famines!
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 What [God’s] prophets say is nothing but hot air! They do not have messages [from God]! We would like [the disasters that they predict] to happen to them!’”
Our prophets became wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them.
14 So, this is what Yahweh, the Commander of the armies of angels in heaven, has said to me: “Because my people are saying those things, I will give you a message to tell them [MTY] that will be [like] [MET] a fire, and [these people will be like] [MET] wood that the fire will burn up.
Therefore thus saith the Lord Almighty, Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I have made my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Listen to this, you people of Israel: I will bring [the army of] a distant nation to attack you. It is a very powerful nation that has existed for a long time. They speak a language that you do not know and which you will not be able to understand.
Behold, I [will] bring upon you a nation from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; a nation the sound of whose language one shall not understand.
16 Their soldiers are all very strong, and the arrows from their quivers [MET] will (send many Israeli men to their graves/cause many Israeli people to die).
[They are] all mighty men:
17 They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields, and eat your bread. They will kill your sons and daughters, and they will kill your flocks [of sheep] and herds [of cattle]. They will eat your grapes and your figs. They will [also] destroy your cities that have high walls around them and kill the people with their swords.
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 ye trusted, with the sword.
18 But even when those things happen, I will not get rid of all of you.
And it shall come to pass in those days, saith the Lord thy God, that I will not utterly destroy you.
19 And when the survivors ask, ‘Why is Yahweh our God doing this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘You rejected him and worshiped foreign gods in your [own] land, so [now] you will become slaves of foreigners in a land that is not your land.’”
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that thou shalt say to them, Because ye served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20 [Yahweh said to me], “Proclaim this to the people of Israel and Judah:
Proclaim these things to the house of Jacob, and let them be heard in the house of Juda.
21 Listen to this, you people who are foolish and who do not have any sense: You have eyes, but [it is as though] you cannot see; you have ears, but [it is as though] you cannot hear.
Hear ye now these things, O foolish and senseless people; who have eyes, and see not; and have ears, and hear not:
22 Why do you not revere me [RHQ]? You should [RHQ] tremble when you are in my presence! I, Yahweh, am the one who put a barrier along the shores so that the waters of the ocean cannot cross it [and flood the land]. The waves roll and roar, but they cannot go past that barrier.
will ye not be afraid of me? saith the Lord; and will ye 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: yea, it shall rage, but not prevail; and its waves shall roar, but not pass over it.
23 But you people [are not like the waves that obey me]. You people are very stubborn and rebellious. You have constantly turned away from me.
But this people has a disobedient and rebellious heart; and they have turned aside and gone back:
24 You do not say to yourselves, ‘We should revere Yahweh our God, the one who sends us rain at the times when we need it, the one who causes the grain to become ripe at the harvest season.’
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 It is because of the wrong things that you have done, that those good things have not happened; it is because of the sins that you have committed that you have been prevented from receiving those blessings.
Your transgressions have turned away these things, and your sins have removed good things from you.
26 Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush/attack people like [SIM] men who hunt birds (put out nets/set traps) to catch them.
For among my people were found ungodly men; and they have set snares to destroy men, and have caught [them].
27 Like [a hunter has] a cage full of birds [that he has captured], their homes are full of things that they have gotten by deceiving others. So now they are [very] rich and powerful.
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 They are big and fat, and there is no limit to the evil things that they have done. They do not try to defend orphans in the courtrooms, and they do not help poor people to get what they have a right to receive.
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 So I will certainly [RHQ] punish them for doing those things. I will certainly [RHQ] (get revenge on their nation/do to their nation what they deserve).
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 Very appalling/horrible and terrible [DOU] things are happening in this country:
Shocking and horrible deeds have been done on the land;
31 Prophets speak [only] lies and priests rule by their own authority, and you people like that! But when you [start to] experience disasters, what will you do [RHQ]?”
the prophets utter unrighteous prophecies, and the priests have clapped their hands: and my people has loved [to have it] thus: and what will ye do for the future.
