Jeremiah 5
1 Walk the streets of Jerusalem, look carefully and take note. Search her squares to see whether you can find a man, anyone who does what is just and seeks faithfulness, and I will forgive her.
2 Even when they say, “As the LORD lives,” they swear falsely.
3 LORD, aren’t your eyes set on faithfulness? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you consumed them, but they refused to accept correction. They made their faces harder than rock and refused to turn back.
4 Then I said, “They are only the poor; they act foolishly because they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the leaders and speak with them, because they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, all together, broke the yoke and snapped the straps.
6 So a lion from the forest strikes them down, a wolf from the steppes destroys them, and a leopard lies in wait by their cities. Everyone who goes out from there will be torn to pieces. For their rebellions are many, and their acts of unfaithfulness are numerous.
7 Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those who are no gods. I satisfied them, but they committed adultery and crowded into the house of a prostitute.
8 They were like well-fed, lustful horses; each one neighed for his neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Should I not take vengeance on a nation like this?
10 Go up through the rows of her vineyard and destroy, but do not make a complete end of it. Strip away her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have utterly betrayed me, says the LORD.
12 They denied the LORD and said, “He is nothing! Disaster will not come upon us, and we will see neither sword nor famine.
13 The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Let that be done to them!”
14 Therefore, this is what the LORD, God of Armies, says: “Because you have spoken this word, I am making my words a fire in your mouth, and this people will be the wood that it consumes.
15 I am bringing against you a nation from far away, house of Israel, says the LORD. It is a nation that has endured from ancient times, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you cannot understand.
16 Their quiver is like an open grave; they are all warriors.
17 They will devour your harvest and your bread; they will devour your sons and daughters; they will devour your flocks and herds; they will devour your vines and fig trees. With the sword, they will level the fortified cities you trust in.
18 But even in those days, says the LORD, 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, ‘Just as you forsook me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20 Announce this in the house of Jacob and make it heard in Judah:
21 ‘Hear this, foolish people without understanding: they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear.’”
22 Do you not fear me? says the LORD. Will you not tremble before me? I set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting decree it cannot cross. Its waves churn, but cannot prevail; they roar, but cannot cross it.
23 But this people has a stubborn, rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the autumn rain and the spring rain in its season, and who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25 Your guilt has turned these things away, and your sins have kept the good from coming to you.
26 For wicked people are found among my people. They lie in wait like someone crouching to catch birds; they set a trap and catch people.
27 Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit. That is why they have grown powerful and rich.
28 They have grown fat and sleek; they have gone beyond all bounds in wickedness. They do not judge the case of the fatherless, yet they prosper; they do not uphold the cause of the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Should I not take vengeance on a nation like this?
30 A shocking and horrible thing has happened in the land:
31 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do when the end comes?
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