Jeremiah 5

¹Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem , look and take note ! Search her squares to see if you can find a man , one who does justice and seeks truth , that I may pardon her.

²Though they say , As the Lord lives , yet they swear falsely .

³O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth ? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish ; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction . They have made their faces harder than rock ; they have refused to repent .

⁴Then I said , These are only the poor ; they have no sense ; for they do not know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God .

⁵I will go to the great and will speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God . But they all alike had broken the yoke ; they had burst the bonds .

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down ; a wolf from the desert shall devastate them. A leopard is watching their cities ; everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces , because their transgressions are many , their apostasies are great .

⁷How can I pardon you ? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods . When I fed them to the full , they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores .

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

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this ?

¹⁰Go up through her vine rows and destroy , but make not a full end ; strip away her branches , for they are not the Lord ’s.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly treacherous to me, declares the Lord.

¹²They have spoken falsely of the Lord and have said , He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine .

¹³The prophets will become wind ; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!

¹⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts : Because you have spoken this word , behold , I am making my words in your a fire , and this people wood , and the fire shall consume them.

¹⁵Behold , I am bringing against you a nation from afar , O house of Israel , declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation ; it is an ancient nation , a nation whose language you do not know , nor can you understand what they say .

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open tomb ; they are all mighty warriors .

¹⁷They shall eat up your harvest and your food ; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters ; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds ; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees ; your fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword .

¹⁸But even in those days , declares the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹And when your people say , Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? you shall say to them, As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land , so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.

²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob ; proclaim it in Judah :

²¹Hear this , O foolish and senseless people , who have eyes , but see not , who have ears , but hear not .

²²Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me ? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea , a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass ; though the waves toss , they cannot prevail ; though they roar , they cannot pass over it.

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

²⁴They do not say in their hearts , Let us fear the Lord our God , who gives the rain in its season , the autumn rain and the spring rain , and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest .

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

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

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

²⁸they have grown fat and sleek . They know no bounds in deeds of evil ; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless , to make it prosper , and they do not defend the rights of the needy .

²⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this ?

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

³¹the prophets prophesy falsely , and the priests rule at their direction ; my people love to have it so , but what will you do when the end comes?