The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 5

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 5

1 Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find anyone who deals honestly or seeks the truth, I will forgive them.

2 Though they say, “As the Lord lives,” they are swearing falsely.

3 Lord, do you not see the truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you consumed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than rock; they refused to return.

4 But I said, “Surely these are worthless; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.”

5 I will go to the nobles and speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God. But these have unanimously broken the yoke and torn off the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the deserts will ravage them; a leopard watches over their cities; whoever goes out of them will be torn to pieces; for their transgressions are many, their backslidings are many.

7 How can I forgive you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those who are not gods. After I have fed them to the full, they have committed adultery and have assembled in bands in the houses of prostitutes.

8 Like well-fed horses, they rise early in the morning, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9 Should I not punish these things, declares the Lord, or should I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

10 Go up to their walls and tear them down (but do not make a complete destruction); take away their battlements, for they are not the Lord’s.

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

12 They deny the Lord and say, “He is not the Lord; no evil will befall us; we will not see sword or famine.”

13 Even the prophets will be like wind, for the word is not in them; so it will happen to them.

14 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of hosts, says: “Because you have spoken such a word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they shall be consumed.

15 Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord, a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor will you understand what they say.

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

17 They will devour your harvest and your bread, which your sons and daughters would have eaten; they will devour your sheep and your cattle; they will devour your vines and your fig trees; they will destroy your fortified cities in which you trusted with the sword.

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

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

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

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

22 Do you not fear me?” declares the Lord. Will you not fear me, who set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting ordinance that it cannot pass? Though its waves rise, they will not prevail; though they roar, they will not pass over it.

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

24 And they do not say in their hearts, “Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the early and the latter rain, in its season, and keeps the appointed weeks of the harvest for us.”

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

26 For wicked men are found among my people; everyone lies in wait as fowlers lie in wait; they set traps to catch men.

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

28 They grow fat, they become sleek, and they surpass even the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; nor do they judge the right of the needy.

29 Should I not punish these things? declares the Lord; should I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?

30 An appalling and horrible thing has been done in the land.

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end?