Jeremiah 5–6

Chapter 5

Jerusalem’s Godlessness

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

And look now and take note.

And seek in her open squares,

If you can ^bfind a man,

^cIf there is one who does justice, who seeks ¹truth,

Then I will pardon her.

²“And ^aalthough they say, ‘As the Lord lives,’

Surely they swear falsely.”

³O Lord, do not ^aYour eyes look for ¹truth?

You have ^bsmitten them,

But they did not ²weaken;

You have consumed them,

But they ^crefused to take correction.

They have ^dmade their faces harder than rock;

They have refused to repent.

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

They are foolish;

For they ^ado not know the way of the Lord

Or the ordinance of their God.

⁵“I will go to the great

And will speak to them,

For ^athey know the way of the Lord

And the ordinance of their God.”

But they too, with one accord, have ^bbroken the yoke

And burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore ^aa lion from the forest will slay them,

A ^bwolf of the deserts will destroy them,

A ^cleopard is watching their cities.

Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,

Because their ^dtransgressions are many,

Their apostasies are numerous.

⁷“Why should I pardon you?

Your sons have forsaken Me

And ^asworn by those who are ^bnot gods.

When I had fed them to the full,

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 the Lord,

“And on a nation such as this

^aShall I not avenge Myself?

¹⁰“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,

But do not execute a complete destruction;

Strip away her branches,

For they are not the Lord’s.

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

Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the Lord.

¹²They have ^alied about the Lord

And said, “^1bNot He;

Misfortune 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!”

Judgment Proclaimed

¹⁴Therefore, thus says the Lord, 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 consume them.

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

“It is an enduring nation,

It is an ancient nation,

A nation whose ^blanguage you do not know,

Nor can you understand 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 the Lord, “I will not make you a complete destruction.

¹⁹“It shall come about ^awhen ¹they say, ‘Why has the Lord 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 proclaim it in Judah, saying,

²¹‘Now hear this, O foolish and ¹senseless people,

Who have ^aeyes but do not see;

Who have ears but do not hear.

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

‘Do you not tremble in My presence?

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

An eternal decree, 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 departed.

²⁴‘They do not say in their heart,

“Let us now fear the Lord our God,

Who ^agives rain in its season,

Both ^bthe autumn rain and the spring 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 trap,

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 wickedness;

They do not plead the cause,

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

And they do not ³defend the rights of the poor.

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

‘On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?’

³⁰“An appalling and ^ahorrible thing

Has happened in the land:

³¹The ^aprophets prophesy falsely,

And the priests rule ¹on their own authority;

And My people ^blove it so!

But what will you do at the end of it?

Chapter 6

Destruction of Jerusalem Impending

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,

And a great destruction.

²“The comely and ^adainty one, ^bthe daughter of Zion, I will cut off.

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

They will ^bpitch their tents ¹around her,

They will pasture each in his ²place.

⁴“^1aPrepare war against her;

Arise, and let us ²attack at ^bnoon.

Woe to us, for the day declines,

For the shadows of the evening lengthen!

⁵“Arise, and let us ¹attack by night

And ^adestroy her ²palaces!”

⁶For thus says the Lord 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“^aAs a well ¹keeps its waters fresh,

So she keeps fresh her wickedness.

^bViolence and destruction are heard in her;

^cSickness and wounds are ever before Me.

⁸“^aBe warned, O Jerusalem,

Or ^1bI shall be alienated from you,

And make you a desolation,

A land not inhabited.”

⁹Thus says the Lord 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 ¹closed

And they cannot listen.

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

They have no delight in it.

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

I am ^bweary with holding it in.

“^cPour it out on the children in the street

And on the ¹gathering of young men together;

For both husband and wife shall be taken,

The aged ²and the very old.

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 the Lord.

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 ¹deals falsely.

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 blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time that I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord,

“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,

‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’

But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

¹⁸“Therefore hear, O nations,

And know, O congregation, what is among them.

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

The ^bfruit of their ¹plans,

Because they have not listened 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 the Lord,

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

And they will stumble against them,

^bFathers and sons together;

Neighbor and ²friend will perish.”

The Enemy from the North

²²Thus says the Lord,

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

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

²³“They seize ^abow and spear;

They are ^bcruel and have no mercy;

Their voice ^croars like the sea,

And they ride on horses,

Arrayed as a man for the battle

Against you, O daughter of Zion!”

²⁴We have ^aheard the report of it;

Our hands are limp.

^bAnguish has seized 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, ^aput on 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 an assayer and a tester among My people,

That you may know and assay their way.”

²⁸All of them are stubbornly rebellious,

^aGoing about as a talebearer.

They are ^bbronze and iron;

They, all of them, are corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire;

In vain the refining goes on,

But the ^awicked are not ¹separated.

^30aThey call them rejected silver,

Because the ^bLord has rejected them.