Jeremiah 5

1 “Run through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and learn; search her squares. If you can find one man who does what is right and seeks faithfulness, I will pardon them, says the Lord.”

2 “‘The Lord lives,’ they say — yet is that not why they swear by a lie?”

3 “Lord, your eyes look for faithfulness. You whipped them, but they felt no pain; you wore them down, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return.”

4 “Then I said, ‘Maybe they are just the poor — that is why they are powerless, for they do not know the way of the Lord or the judgment of God.’”

5 “‘I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God.’ But look — as one they had broken the yoke and torn apart the bonds.”

6 “That is why a lion from the forest has struck them, and a wolf has destroyed them right up to their houses, and a leopard has kept watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out will be hunted, because they have multiplied their ungodliness and grown strong in their turning away.”

7 “For which of these things should I forgive you? Your sons abandoned me and swore by things that are not gods. I fed them full, and they committed adultery and spent their nights in the houses of prostitutes.”

8 “They became stallions mad for mares; each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.”

9 “Will I not call them to account for these things? says the Lord. Will my soul not take vengeance on a nation like this?”

10 “Climb up on her battlements and tear them down, but do not make a complete end. Leave her supports, for they are the Lord’s.”

11 “For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have utterly broken faith with me, says the Lord.”

12 “They lied to their Lord and said, ‘It is not so. No disaster will come on us; we will not see sword or famine.’”

13 “‘Our prophets were wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them.’ So it will be done to them.”

14 “Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: Because you have spoken this word, look — I have made my words fire in your mouth and this people wood, and it will devour them.”

15 “Look, house of Israel, says the Lord: I am bringing against you a nation from far away, a nation whose speech you will not understand.”

16 “They are all mighty men.”

17 “And they will devour your harvest and your bread; and they will devour your sons and your daughters; and they will devour your sheep and your calves; and they will devour your vineyards and your fig orchards and your olive groves. And they will thresh your fortified cities, the ones you trusted in, with the sword.”

18 “But even in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not make a complete end of you.”

19 “And when you ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ — you will tell them: Because you served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.”

20 “Announce these things to the house of Jacob, and let them be heard in Judah.”

21 “Hear this now, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear.”

22 “Will you not fear me? says the Lord. Will you not stand in awe before me — the one who set the sand as a boundary for the sea, a lasting decree it will not cross? It churns, but it cannot prevail; its waves roar, but they will not cross it.”

23 “But this people has a heart that will not hear, a rebellious heart; they turned aside and went away.”

24 “And they did not say in their heart, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early rain and the late rain, each in its season, when the decree of harvest comes due — and he has kept it for us.’”

25 “Your lawless deeds have turned these things away, and your sins have driven good things from you.”

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

27 “As a snare set out is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. That is why they have grown great and rich.”

28 “They stepped past judgment: they did not judge the orphan’s case, and the widow’s case they did not judge.”

29 “Will I not call them to account for these things? says the Lord. Will my soul not take vengeance on a nation like this?”

30 “Astonishing and horrible things have happened in the land.”

31 “The prophets prophesy what is wrong, and the priests applaud with their hands, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the days that follow?”