Jeremiah 5

1Roam through the streets of Jerusalem, and please look and know, and search in her squares, whether you can find a man, whether there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness, and I will forgive her.

2And if they say, “As the LORD lives,” even so they swear falsely.

3O Yahweh, are not your eyes on faithfulness? You struck them, but they did not feel pain; you consumed them, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock; they refused to return.

4But I said, “Surely these are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God.”

5I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God. But they too, together, have broken the yoke; they have torn off the bonds.

6Therefore a lion from the forest strikes them down; a wolf of the deserts devastates them; a leopard keeps watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them will be torn apart, because their transgressions are many; their apostasies have grown strong.

7How can I forgive you for this? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery and crowded into a prostitute’s house.

8They were well-fed, lusty stallions; each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9Shall I not punish for these things? declares Yahweh. And on a nation such as this, shall I not avenge myself?

10Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but do not make a full end. Remove her branches, for they are not Yahweh’s.

11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with me, declares Yahweh.

12They have denied Yahweh and said, “He is not there, and no disaster will come upon us; we will not see sword or famine.”

13And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; thus it will be done to them.

14Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts: Because you speak this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will consume them.

15Look, I am bringing against you a nation from far away, O house of Israel, declares Yahweh. It is a mighty nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, and whose speech you do not understand.

16Their quiver is like an open grave; all of them are mighty men.

17And they will consume your harvest and your bread; they will consume your sons and your daughters; they will consume your flock and your herd; they will consume your vine and your fig tree; they will destroy your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

18Yet even in those days, declares Yahweh, I will not make a full end of you.

19And when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land not yours.’

20Declare this in the house of Jacob, and proclaim it in Judah, saying:

21Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

22Do you not fear me? declares Yahweh. Do you not tremble before me, he who set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting decree that it cannot cross? Though its waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross it.

23But this people has had a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

24They did not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain in its season, both the early rain and the latter rain, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

25Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld the good from you.

26For wicked men are found among my people; they lie in wait like fowlers. They set a trap; they catch men.

27Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

28They have grown fat; they are sleek. They also have gone beyond evil words. They do not judge with justice the case of the fatherless, so that they might prosper, and they do not uphold the justice of the poor.

29Shall I not punish for these things? declares Yahweh. Shall my soul not avenge itself on a nation such as this?

30An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their authority, and my people love it so. But what will you do when its end comes?