Jeremiah 5
1 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.
Go everywhere through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and pay attention! Search all through her city squares to see if you can find even just one person who does what's right, anyone who is faithful, and I'll forgive the city.
2 And if they say, 'Jehovah liveth,' Surely to a falsehood they swear.
They may make promises in my name, but they're not sincere.
3 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.
Lord, aren't you always looking for faithfulness? You beat them, but they didn't care. You just about destroyed them, but they refused to accept your discipline. They were stubborn, hard as rock, and they wouldn't repent.
4 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.
Then I said to myself, “These people are only the poor—they're just fools who don't know any better. They certainly don't know what the Lord wants, God's right way of living.
5 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.
Let me go to and talk to the ones in charge. They would surely know what the Lord wants, God's right way of living.” But they had all broken off the yoke as well, and ripped off the chains.
6 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.
As a result a lion from the forest will attack them; a wolf from the desert will rip them apart. A leopard will lie in wait for them near their towns, ready to tear to pieces anyone who goes outside. For they keep on rebelling, and turn away from me so often.
7 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.
Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned me and believe in gods that are not gods. I gave them everything they need, yet they went and committed adultery, gathering together at prostitutes' houses.
8 Fed horses — they have been early risers, Each to the wife of his neighbour they neigh.
They're like virile stallions wanting sex, each of them neighing with lust after his neighbor's wife.
9 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?
Shouldn't I punish them for all this? declares the Lord. Shouldn't I retaliate for what this nation has done?
10 Go ye up on her walls, and destroy, And a completion make not, Turn aside her branches, for they [are] not Jehovah's,
Go through her vineyards and damage them, but don't destroy them completely. Rip off her branches, because they don't belong to the Lord.
11 For dealt treacherously against Me have the house of Israel, And the house of Judah, an affirmation of Jehovah.
The people of Israel and Judah have completely betrayed me, declares the Lord.
12 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.
They have lied about the Lord, saying, “He won't do anything. Nothing bad will happen to us. We won't have war or famine.
13 And the prophets become wind, And the word is not in them,' — thus it is done by them.
The prophets are just like the wind. The Lord doesn't speak through them. What they predict can happen to them!”
14 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.
So this is the reply from the Lord God Almighty: Because of what you've said, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth and you people like the wood it burns up.
15 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.
Look! I am bringing a nation from far away to attack you, people of Israel, declares the Lord. It's a powerful nation that has existed for a long time; it's a nation whose language you don't know, and when they speak you can't understand them.
16 Its quiver [is] as an open sepulchre, All of them — mighty ones.
Their arrows bring death; they are all strong warriors.
17 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.
They will consume your harvest and your food; they will destroy your sons and your daughters; they will eat your flocks and your herds; they will feed on your vines and your fig trees. They will attack and will destroy the fortified towns that you have so much confidence in.
18 And even in those days, an affirmation of Jehovah, I do not make you a completion.
But even at that time I won't completely destroy you, declares the Lord.
19 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.
When people ask you Jeremiah, “Why did the Lord our God do all these things to us?” you are to tell them, “In the same way you have abandoned me and served foreign gods here in your country, so you will serve foreigners in a country that isn't your own.”
20 Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, And sound ye it in Judah, saying,
Announce this to the people of Jacob and Judah:
21 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.
Listen to this, you foolish, stupid people, who have eyes but don't see, who have ears but don't hear.
22 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.
Aren't you afraid of what I can do? declares the Lord. Don't you think you should tremble in my presence? I am the one who set up the shore as the sea's boundary, an everlasting limit that it can't cross. The waves crash against it, but they can't defeat it. They roar, but they can't cross the barrier.
23 And this people hath an apostate and rebellious heart, They have turned aside, and they go on.
But you people have a stubborn and rebellious attitude. You have left me and gone your own way.
24 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.'
You didn't think to say, “We should appreciate the Lord our God, who sends the autumn and spring rains at the right time, who makes sure we can have a harvest every year.”
25 Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have kept the good from you.
Your wrong actions have taken these benefits from you; your sins have deprived you of my blessings.
26 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.
For there are wicked men among my people. They're like bird-trappers, secretly watching and waiting to catch people in their snare.
27 As a cage full of fowls, So their houses are full of deceit, Therefore they have been great, and are rich.
Their homes are full of their ill-gotten gains, like cages full of birds. That's why they've become powerful and rich.
28 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.
They've grown fat and smooth, and have become experts in evil. They deny justice to orphans, and they don't defend the rights of those in need.
29 For these do not I inspect, an affirmation of Jehovah, On a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?
Shouldn't I punish them for all this? declares the Lord. Shouldn't I retaliate for what this nation has done?
30 An astonishing and horrible thing hath been in the land.
Something horrible, something terrible has happened here in this country.
31 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?
The prophets give false prophecies; the priests rule as they please. My people love it like this, but what will you do when it all falls apart?
