Jeremias 5

¹ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find a man, if there is [any] that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardonThat is, the city.it.

² And though they say, TheThough they pretend religion and holiness, yet all is but hypocrisy: for under this kind of swearing is contained the true religion.LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

³ O LORD, [are] not thy eyes upon theDo you not love uprightness and faithful dealing?truth? thou hastYou have often punished them, but all is in vain, (Isa_9:13).stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ Therefore I saide, Surely they are poore, they are foolish, for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the iudgement of their God.

⁵ I will go to theHe speaks this to the reproach of them who would govern and teach others, and yet are farther out of the way than the simple people.great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, [and] the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, [and] burst the bonds.

⁶ Wherefore aMeaning, Nebuchadnezzar and his army.lion from the forest shall slay them, [and] a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, [and] their backslidings are increased.

⁷ How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, andHe shows that to swear by anything other than by God is to forsake him.sworn by [them that are] no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

⁸ They rose vp in the morning like fed horses: for euery man neyed after his neighbours wife.

⁹ Shall I not visite for these things, saith the Lorde? Shall not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰ He commands the Babylonians and enemies to destroy them.Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end:Read (Jer_4:27).take away her battlements; for they [are] not the LORD'S.

¹¹ For the house of Israel, and the house of Iudah haue grieuously trespassed against me, saith the Lord.

¹² They haveBecause they gave no credit to the words of his prophets, as in (Isa_28:15).lied about the LORD, and said, [It is] not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

¹³ And the prophets shall becomeTheir words will be of no effect, but vain.wind, and the word [is]They are not sent from the Lord, and therefore that which they threaten to us will come on them.not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

¹⁴ Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words inMeaning, Jeremiah.thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a nation upon youThat is, the Babylonians and Chaldeans.from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it [is] a mighty nation, it [is] an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver [is] as anWho will kill many with their arrows.open sepulchre, they [are] all mighty men.

¹⁷ And they shall eate thine haruest and thy bread: they shall deuoure thy sonnes and thy daughters: they shall eate vp thy sheepe and thy bullocks: they shall eate thy vines and thy figge trees: they shall destroy with the sworde thy fensed cities, wherein thou didest trust.

¹⁸ Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end withHere the Lord declares his unspeakable favour toward his Church, as in (Jer_4:27).you.

¹⁹ And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these [things] to us? then shaltMeaning, the prophet Jeremiah.thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land [that is] not yours.

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Iaakob, and publish it in Iudah, saying,

²¹ Heare nowe this, O foolish people, and without vnderstanding, which haue eyes and see not, which haue eares and heare not.

²² Feare ye not me, saith the Lord? Or will ye not be afraide at my presence, which haue placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by the perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it, and though the waues thereof rage, yet can they not preuaile, though they roare, yet can they not passe ouer it?

²³ But this people hath an vnfaithfull and rebellious heart: they are departed and gone.

²⁴ For they say not in their heart, Let vs nowe feare the Lorde our God, that giueth raine both early and late in due season: hee reserueth vnto vs the appointed weekes of the haruest.

²⁵ YourIf there is any stay, that we receive not God's blessings in abundance, we must consider that it is for our own iniquities, (Isa_59:1-2).iniquities have turned away these [things], and your sins have withheld good [things] from you.

²⁶ For among my people are founde wicked persons, that lay waite as hee that setteth snares: they haue made a pit, to catch men.

²⁷ As a cage is full of birdes, so are their houses full of deceite: thereby they are become great and waxen riche.

²⁸ They have become fat, they shine: yea, they exceed the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet theyThey feel not the plague of God for it.prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

²⁹ Shall I not visite for these things, sayth the Lord? or shall not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰ An horrible and filthie thing is committed in the land.

³¹ TheMeaning that there could be nothing but disorder, where the ministers were wicked and corrupt.prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love [to have it] so: and what will ye do in its end?