Jeremiah 5–6

CHAPTER 5

Jerusalem Refuses to Repent

¹“^aRoam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,

And see now and know,

And seek in her open squares,

If you can ^bfind a man,

^cIf there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness,

Then I will pardon her.

²“And ^aif they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’

Then they swear to a lie.”

³O Yahweh, do not ^aYour eyes look for faithfulness?

You have ^bstruck them,

But they did not ¹weaken;

You have consumed them,

But they ^crefused to receive discipline.

They have ^dmade their faces stronger than rock;

They have refused to ²repent.

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor;

They are foolish;

For they ^ado not know the way of Yahweh

Or the legal judgment of their God.

⁵“Let me go to the great

And let me speak to them,

For ^athey know the way of Yahweh

And the legal judgment of their God.”

But they too, altogether, have ^bbroken the yoke

And torn apart the bonds.

⁶Therefore ^aa lion from the forest will strike them down;

A ^bwolf of the deserts will devastate them;

A ^cleopard is watching their cities.

Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces

Because their ^dtransgressions are many;

Their acts of faithlessness are mighty.

⁷“Why should I pardon you?

Your sons have forsaken Me

And ^asworn by those who are ^bnot gods.

I had satisfied them to the full,

Then they ^ccommitted adultery

And trooped to the harlot’s house.

⁸“They were well-fed lusty horses,

Each one neighing after his ^aneighbor’s wife.

⁹“Shall I not punish ¹these people,” declares Yahweh,

“And on a nation such as this

^aShall I not avenge Myself?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine rows and make them a ruin,

But do not make a complete destruction;

Remove her branches,

For they are not Yahweh’s.

¹¹“For the ^ahouse of Israel and the house of Judah

Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares Yahweh.

¹²They have ^adealt falsely about Yahweh

And said, “^1bNot He;

Calamity will ^cnot come on us,

And we ^dwill not see sword or famine.

¹³“The ^aprophets are as wind,

And the word is not in them.

Thus it will be done to them!”

A Stubborn and Rebellious People

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

“Because you have spoken this word,

Behold, I am ^amaking My words in your mouth fire

And this people wood, and it will devour them.

¹⁵“Behold, I am ^abringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares Yahweh.

“It is an enduring nation;

It is an ancient nation,

A nation whose ^btongue you do not know,

Nor can you ¹understand what they say.

¹⁶“Their ^aquiver is like an ^bopen grave;

All of them are mighty men.

¹⁷“They will ^adevour your harvest and your food;

They will devour your sons and your daughters;

They will devour your flocks and your herds;

They will devour your ^bvines and your fig trees;

They will demolish with the sword your ^cfortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸“Yet even in those days,” declares Yahweh, “I will not make you a complete destruction.

¹⁹“It shall come about ^awhen ¹they say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will ^bserve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob

And cause it to be heard in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Now hear this, O people who are simpleminded fools and without a heart of wisdom,

Who have ^aeyes but do not see,

Who have ears but do not hear.

²²‘Do you not ^afear Me?’ declares Yahweh.

‘Do you not tremble in My presence?

For I have ^bplaced the sand as a boundary for the sea,

A perpetual statute, so it cannot cross over it.

Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;

Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.

²³‘But this people has a ^astubborn and rebellious heart;

They have turned aside and gone away.

²⁴‘They do not say in their heart,

“Let us now fear Yahweh our God,

Who ^agives rain in its season,

Both ^bthe ¹early rain and the ²late rain,

Who keeps for us

The ^cappointed weeks of the harvest.”

²⁵‘Your ^ainiquities have turned these away,

And your sins have withheld good from you.

²⁶‘For wicked men are found among My people;

They ^awatch like fowlers ¹lying in wait;

They set a ²trap;

They catch men.

²⁷‘Like a cage full of birds,

So their houses are full of ^adeceit;

Therefore they have become great and rich.

²⁸‘They are ^afat, they are sleek;

They also ¹excel in deeds of evil;

They do not plead the cause,

The cause of the ^2borphan, that they may succeed;

And they do not ³render justice for the poor.

²⁹‘^aShall I not punish ¹these people?’ declares Yahweh,

‘On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?’

³⁰“A horrible and ^aappalling thing

Has happened in the land:

³¹The ^aprophets prophesy with lying,

And the priests have dominion ¹by their own hand;

And My people ^blove it so!

But what will you do at the end of it?

CHAPTER 6

Yahweh Disciplines Israel

¹“Flee for safety, O sons of ^aBenjamin,

From the midst of Jerusalem!

Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa

And raise a signal over ^1bBeth-haccerem,

For evil looks down from the ^cnorth,

As well as great destruction.

²“The comely and ^adelicate one, ^bthe daughter of Zion, I will ruin.

³“^aShepherds and their flocks will come to her;

They will ^bpitch their tents ¹around her;

They will pasture each in his ²place.

⁴“^aSet yourselves apart for war against her;

Arise, and let us go up at ^bnoon.

Woe to us, for the day declines,

For the shadows of the evening stretch out!

⁵“Arise, and let us go up by night

And ^1adestroy her ²palaces!”

⁶For thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“^aCut down her trees

And cast up a ^bsiege against Jerusalem.

This is the city to be punished,

In whose midst there is only ^coppression.

⁷“^aLike a well ¹keeps its waters fresh,

So she ²keeps fresh her evil.

^bViolence and devastation are heard in her;

^cSickness and wounds are continually before Me.

⁸“^aHeed discipline, O Jerusalem,

Lest ^bMy soul become disgusted at you,

Lest I make you a desolation,

A land not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says Yahweh of hosts,

“They will ^athoroughly glean as the vine the ^bremnant of Israel;

Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer

Over the branches.”

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and give warning

That they may hear?

Behold, their ^aears are uncircumcised,

And they cannot give heed.

Behold, ^bthe word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them;

They have no delight in it.

¹¹But I am ^afull of the wrath of Yahweh;

I am ^bweary of holding it in.

“^cPour it out on the infants in the street

And on the ¹gathering of choice men together;

For both husband and wife shall be captured,

The aged with the one full of days.

¹²“Their ^ahouses shall be turned over to others,

Their fields and their wives together,

For I will ^bstretch out My hand

Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh.

¹³“For ^afrom the least of them even to the greatest of them,

Everyone is ^bgreedy for gain,

And from the prophet even to the priest

Everyone practices lying.

¹⁴“They have ^ahealed the brokenness of My people superficially,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace.

¹⁵“Were they ^aashamed because of the abomination they have done?

They were not even ashamed at all;

They did not even know how to feel dishonor.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time that I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says Yahweh.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh,

“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ^aancient paths,

Where the good way is, and walk in it;

And ^byou will find rest for your souls.

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

¹⁷“And I set ^awatchmen over you, saying,

‘Give heed to the sound of the trumpet!’

But they said, ‘We will not give heed.’

¹⁸“Therefore hear, O nations,

And know, O congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹“^aHear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evil on this people,

The ^bfruit of their ¹plans,

Because they have not given heed to My words,

And as for My law, they have ^crejected it also.

²⁰“^aFor what purpose does ^bfrankincense come to Me from Sheba

And the ^1csweet cane from a distant land?

^dYour burnt offerings are not acceptable,

And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.”

²¹Therefore, thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, ^aI am ¹laying stumbling blocks before this people.

And they will stumble against them,

^bFathers and sons together;

Neighbor and ²friend will perish.”

Mourn the Coming Destroyer

²²Thus says Yahweh,

“Behold, ^aa people is coming from the land of the north,

And a great nation will be aroused from the ^bremote parts of the earth.

²³“They take hold of ^abow and spear;

They are ^bcruel and have no compassion;

Their voice ^croars like the sea,

And they ride on horses,

Arranged as a man for the battle

Against you, O daughter of Zion!”

²⁴We have ^aheard the report of it;

Our hands are limp.

^bDistress has taken hold of us,

Pain as of a woman in childbirth.

^25aDo not go out into the field

And ^bdo not walk on the road,

For the enemy has a sword;

^cTerror is on every side.

²⁶O daughter of my people, ^agird yourself with sackcloth

And ^broll in ashes;

^1cMourn as for an only son,

A lamentation most bitter.

For suddenly the destroyer

Will come upon us.

²⁷“I have ^amade you a tester of metals and ¹an assayer among My people,

That you may know and test their way.”

²⁸All of them are rebelliously stubborn,

^aGoing about as a slanderer.

They are ^bbronze and iron;

They, all of them, are corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely;

The lead ¹is consumed by the fire;

In vain the refining goes on,

But the ^aevil ones are not ²separated.

^30aThey call them rejected silver

Because ^bYahweh has rejected them.