Jeremiah 5–6

5“Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem,

and look please, and take note,

and search at its public squares,

if you can find a person who does justice,

who seeks honesty,

so that I may forgive it.

²And though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’^a

therefore^b they swear falsely.”

³O Yahweh, do not your eyes look for honesty?

You have struck them, but they felt no pain,

you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline.

They have hardened their faces more than rock,

they have refused to turn back.

⁴Then I said, “They are just simple people,

they are foolish,

for they know not the way of Yahweh,

the law^c of their God.

⁵Let me go to the great,

and let me speak with them,

for they know the way of Yahweh,

the law^d of their God.”

However, they together have broken the yoke,

they have torn to pieces the bonds.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them,

A wolf from the desert plains^e will devastate them.

A leopard is watching their cities,

everyone who goes out from there will be torn,

because their transgressions are many,

their apostasies are numerous.

⁷“How^f can I forgive you?

Your children have forsaken me,

and they have sworn by those who are not gods.

But I fed them to the full,

and they committed adultery,

and flocked to the house of a prostitute.

⁸They were well-fed lusty horses,

they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor.

⁹Because of these things shall I not punish?” declares^g Yahweh,

“and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and destroy,

but you must not make complete destruction.

Remove her branches,

for they are not to Yahweh.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have dealt utterly treacherously with me,” declares^h Yahweh.

¹²“They have denied Yahweh, and have said,

‘Not he, forⁱ evil will not come on us,

we will see neither sword nor famine.

¹³And the prophets are like wind,

and the word is not in them.’

Thus it will be done to them.”

¹⁴Therefore^j thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts,

“Because you have spoken this word,

look, I am making my words in your mouth like a fire,

and this people wood, and it will devour them.

¹⁵Look, I am about to bring on you a nation from afar,

O house of Israel,” declares^k Yahweh.

“It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation.^l

A nation whose language you do not know,

and you cannot understand what they speak.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open tomb,

all of them are warriors.

¹⁷And they will eat your harvest and your food,

they will eat your sons and your daughters,

they will eat your flock and your herd,

they will eat your vine and your fig tree,

they will smash with the sword your fortified cities,^m

in which you trust.

¹⁸“But even in those days,” declaresⁿ Yahweh, “I will not make you a complete destruction. ¹⁹And then,^o when you people say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all of these things to us?’ Then you will say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that does not belong to you.’^p

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob,

and proclaim it in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Hear this please, O foolish and senseless^q people,

who have eyes^r but do not see,

who have ears^s but do not hear.’

²²Do you not revere me?” declares^t Yahweh,

“Do you not tremble before me?^u

For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,

as an everlasting limit,^v and it cannot pass over it,

and they rise and fall loudly, but they cannot prevail,

and its waves roar, but they cannot pass over it.

²³But for this people is a stubborn and rebellious heart,

they have turned aside and have gone away.

²⁴And they do not say in their hearts,

‘Let us fear please Yahweh our God,

the one who gives the autumn rain^w and the spring rain^x in its season,

the set times of the harvest^y he keeps for us.’

²⁵Your iniquities have disturbed these,

and your sins have kept away the good from you.

²⁶For wicked people are found among my people,

they lie in wait like the hiding of fowlers,

they set up a trap,

they catch humans.

²⁷Like a cage full of birds,^z

so their houses are full of fraud.

Therefore^a they have become great,

and they have become rich.

²⁸They have grown fat,

they have grown sleek,

also, their evil deeds have no limit.^b

They do not judge with justice,

the legal cause of the orphan,

or allow it to succeed,

and the legal case of the poor,

they do not defend.

²⁹Because of these things shall I not punish?” declares^c Yahweh,

“and on a nation who is like this, shall I not take revenge?

³⁰A horrific event and something horrible has happened in the land.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely,^d

and the priests rule by their own authority,^e

and my people love it^f so much.

But what will you do when the end comes?^g

6Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin,

from the midst of Jerusalem.

And in Tekoa blow a horn,

and on Beth-haccherem lift up a signal,

for evil looks down from the north,

and a great destruction.

²The lovely and the delicate,

the daughter of Jerusalem, I will destroy.

³Shepherds and their flocks will come against her,

they will pitch their tents against her all around,

they will pasture, each his portion.^a

⁴Sanctify^b war against her.

Arise, and let us attack at noon.

Woe to us, for the day turns,

for the shadows of evening are lengthened.

⁵Arise, and let us attack by night,

and let us destroy her citadel fortresses.”

⁶For thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.

This is the city that must be punished,

its oppression is in its midst.

⁷As a water well keeps its water cool,

so she keeps cool her wickedness.

Violence and destruction are heard within her,

sickness and wounds^c are continually before me.^d

⁸Be warned, O Jerusalem,

lest I turn away from you in disgust,

lest I make you a desolation,

a land that is not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says Yahweh of hosts:

“They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine,

turn back your hand over the branches like a grape-gatherer.

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and admonish,

that they may hear?

Look, their ears are closed,^e

and they are not able to listen attentively.

Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn,

they do not delight in it.

¹¹But I am full with the wrath of Yahweh,

I struggle to hold it^f in.

Pour it out on the children^g in the street,

and on the assemblies^h of young men at the same time.

For even husband with wife will get trapped,

the old with him who is full of days.

¹²And their houses will be turned over to others,

their fields and their wives together.

For I will stretch out my hand

against the inhabitants of the land,” declaresⁱ Yahweh.

¹³“For from the smallest of them to the greatest of them,

everyone^j makes profit for unlawful gain.

And from the prophet to the priest,

everyone^k practices deceit.

¹⁴And they have treated the wound of my people lightly,

saying,^l ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.

¹⁵Have they acted ashamed, for they have committed a detestable thing?

Not at all, nor were they ashamed; they did not know to feel humiliated.

Therefore^m they will fall among those who fall at the time I punish them,

they will stumble,” says Yahweh.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh: “Stand at the roads and look,

and ask for the ancient paths, where the way of the good is,

and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves.ⁿ

But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’^o

¹⁷And I raised up watchmen over you:

‘Listen attentively to the sound of a horn.’

But they said, ‘We will not listen attentively.’

¹⁸Therefore^p hear, O nations, and know, O community,

what will happen to them.^q

¹⁹Hear, O earth,

look, I am about to bring disaster to this people,

the fruit of their plans,

because they have not listened attentively to my words,

and my teaching, they have rejected it also.

²⁰What is this to me?

Frankincense comes from Sheba,

and the precious spice reed from a distant land.

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,^r

your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.”

²¹Therefore^s thus says Yahweh:

“Look, I am about to put before this people stumbling blocks,

and they will stumble against them,

fathers and children together,

neighbor and his friend will perish.”

²²Thus says Yahweh:

“Look, a people is coming from the land of the north,

a great nation is woken up from the farthest part of the earth.

²³The bow and the short sword they grasp are cruel,

and they show no mercy.

Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride,

drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion.”

²⁴We have heard news of it,

our hands grow slack,

anxiety has grasped us,

pain as a woman who gives birth.

²⁵You must not go out into the field,

and you must not walk on the road,

for the enemy has a sword,^t

terror is all around.

²⁶O daughter of my people,

gird yourself with sackcloth,

and roll about in the ashes in mourning,

a mourning ceremony as for an only child.

Make for yourself wailing of bitterness,

for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

²⁷“I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification,

so that you may know and put to the test their ways.^u

²⁸All of them are stubborn rebels,

going about talking slander.

They are bronze and iron,

they are all behaving corruptly.

²⁹The bellows^v are burned up,

lead is consumed by fire.

In vain^w he keeps on refining,^x

but the wicked are not torn apart.

³⁰They are called^y rejected silver,

For Yahweh has rejected them.”