Jeremiah 5
1 Go everywhere through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and pay attention! Search all through her city squares to see if you can find even just one person who does what's right, anyone who is faithful, and I'll forgive the city.
Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness.
2 They may make promises in my name, but they're not sincere.
And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false.
3 Lord, aren't you always looking for faithfulness? You beat them, but they didn't care. You just about destroyed them, but they refused to accept your discipline. They were stubborn, hard as rock, and they wouldn't repent.
O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back.
4 Then I said to myself, “These people are only the poor—they're just fools who don't know any better. They certainly don't know what the Lord wants, God's right way of living.
Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God.
5 Let me go to and talk to the ones in charge. They would surely know what the Lord wants, God's right way of living.” But they had all broken off the yoke as well, and ripped off the chains.
I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands.
6 As a result a lion from the forest will attack them; a wolf from the desert will rip them apart. A leopard will lie in wait for them near their towns, ready to tear to pieces anyone who goes outside. For they keep on rebelling, and turn away from me so often.
And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.
7 Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned me and believe in gods that are not gods. I gave them everything they need, yet they went and committed adultery, gathering together at prostitutes' houses.
How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women.
8 They're like virile stallions wanting sex, each of them neighing with lust after his neighbor's wife.
They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife.
9 Shouldn't I punish them for all this? declares the Lord. Shouldn't I retaliate for what this nation has done?
Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
10 Go through her vineyards and damage them, but don't destroy them completely. Rip off her branches, because they don't belong to the Lord.
Go up against her vines and make waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.
11 The people of Israel and Judah have completely betrayed me, declares the Lord.
For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been very false to me, says the Lord.
12 They have lied about the Lord, saying, “He won't do anything. Nothing bad will happen to us. We won't have war or famine.
They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not see the sword or be short of food:
13 The prophets are just like the wind. The Lord doesn't speak through them. What they predict can happen to them!”
And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them.
14 So this is the reply from the Lord God Almighty: Because of what you've said, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth and you people like the wood it burns up.
For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said: Because you have said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they will be burned up by it.
15 Look! I am bringing a nation from far away to attack you, people of Israel, declares the Lord. It's a powerful nation that has existed for a long time; it's a nation whose language you don't know, and when they speak you can't understand them.
See, I will send you a nation from far away, O people of Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old nation, a nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not get the sense of their words.
16 Their arrows bring death; they are all strong warriors.
Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war.
17 They will consume your harvest and your food; they will destroy your sons and your daughters; they will eat your flocks and your herds; they will feed on your vines and your fig trees. They will attack and will destroy the fortified towns that you have so much confidence in.
They will take all the produce of your fields, which would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they will take your flocks and your herds: they will take all your vines and your fig-trees: and with the sword they will make waste your walled towns in which you put your faith.
18 But even at that time I won't completely destroy you, declares the Lord.
But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your destruction be complete.
19 When people ask you Jeremiah, “Why did the Lord our God do all these things to us?” you are to tell them, “In the same way you have abandoned me and served foreign gods here in your country, so you will serve foreigners in a country that isn't your own.”
And it will come about, when you say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them, As you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange gods in your land, so will you be servants to strange men in a land which is not yours.
20 Announce this to the people of Jacob and Judah:
Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying,
21 Listen to this, you foolish, stupid people, who have eyes but don't see, who have ears but don't hear.
Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing:
22 Aren't you afraid of what I can do? declares the Lord. Don't you think you should tremble in my presence? I am the one who set up the shore as the sea's boundary, an everlasting limit that it can't cross. The waves crash against it, but they can't defeat it. They roar, but they can't cross the barrier.
Have you no fear of me? says the Lord; will you not be shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as a limit for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it? and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way; though the sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go past it.
23 But you people have a stubborn and rebellious attitude. You have left me and gone your own way.
But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are broken loose and gone.
24 You didn't think to say, “We should appreciate the Lord our God, who sends the autumn and spring rains at the right time, who makes sure we can have a harvest every year.”
And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us give worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the spring rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered weeks of the grain-cutting.
25 Your wrong actions have taken these benefits from you; your sins have deprived you of my blessings.
Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you.
26 For there are wicked men among my people. They're like bird-trappers, secretly watching and waiting to catch people in their snare.
For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.
27 Their homes are full of their ill-gotten gains, like cages full of birds. That's why they've become powerful and rich.
As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth.
28 They've grown fat and smooth, and have become experts in evil. They deny justice to orphans, and they don't defend the rights of those in need.
They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.
29 Shouldn't I punish them for all this? declares the Lord. Shouldn't I retaliate for what this nation has done?
Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this?
30 Something horrible, something terrible has happened here in this country.
A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land;
31 The prophets give false prophecies; the priests rule as they please. My people love it like this, but what will you do when it all falls apart?
The prophets give false words and the priests give decisions by their direction; and my people are glad to have it so: and what will you do in the end?
