Jeremiah 5

1Roam through the streets of Jerusalem; look and take note. Search her squares to see if you can find a single person, anyone who does justice and seeks faithfulness, and I will forgive her.

2Even when they say, “As Yahweh lives,” they are swearing falsely.

3Yahweh, do your eyes not look for faithfulness? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused to accept correction. They made their faces harder than rock; they refused to return.

4Then I thought, “These are only the poor; they act foolishly, for they do not know the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God.

5I will go to the great and speak with them, for they surely know the way of Yahweh, the justice of their God.” But all of them alike had broken the yoke and torn off the bonds.

6So a lion from the forest will strike them down; a wolf from the desert will destroy them; a leopard is lying in wait near their cities. Everyone who goes out of them will be torn to pieces, for their rebellions are many, their acts of unfaithfulness numerous.

7How can I forgive you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I fed them until they were full, yet they committed adultery and crowded into the house of a prostitute.

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

9Should I not punish them for these things? declares Yahweh. Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?

10Go up through her vineyard rows and destroy them, but do not make a full end. Strip away her branches, for they do not belong to Yahweh.

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

12They have lied about Yahweh and said, “He will do nothing! No disaster will come on us; we will not see sword or famine.

13The prophets are only wind, and the word is not in them. So let it be done to them!”

14Therefore this is what Yahweh, the God of Armies, says: Because you have spoken this word, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and it will consume them.

15I am about to bring a nation against you from far away, house of Israel, declares Yahweh. It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, whose speech you cannot understand.

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

17They will devour 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 vines and your fig trees. With the sword they will shatter your fortified cities in which you trust.

18Yet even in those days, declares Yahweh, I will not make a full end of you.

19And when the people ask, “Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?” you are to tell them, “Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”

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

21Hear this, you foolish people without sense, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

22Do you not fear me? declares Yahweh. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier it cannot cross. Though its waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross 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 Yahweh our God, who gives the rain, the autumn rain and the spring rain in its season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

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

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

27Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit. That is how they have become great and rich.

28They have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds know no limit. They do not plead the cause of the orphan so that it may succeed, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

29Should I not punish them for these things? declares Yahweh. Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?

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

31the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do when the end comes?