Jeremiah 5

1Roam the streets of Jerusalem; look around and take note; search her public squares. See if you can find a single person, one who acts justly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon the city. 2Even when they say, “As surely as the LORD lives,” they are swearing to a lie. 3LORD, do not your eyes look for faithfulness? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they would not accept correction. They set their faces harder than rock; they would not turn back. 4I said, “These are only the poor; they act foolishly because they do not know the way of the LORD, what their God requires. 5I will go to the great and speak with them; surely they know the way of the LORD, what their God requires.” But they too, one and all, had broken the yoke and snapped the straps. 6So a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard lies in wait near their towns; anyone who goes out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellions are many, and they have turned away countless times. 7How can I forgive you for this? Your children have abandoned me and sworn by what are no gods at all. I filled them with food, yet they committed adultery and crowded into the house of a prostitute. 8They are like well-fed, lusty stallions; each one neighs for his neighbor’s wife. 9Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. On a nation such as this should I not take vengeance?

10Go up through her vineyard rows and ruin them, but do not destroy her completely. Cut away her branches; they do not belong to the LORD. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken faith with me completely, declares the LORD. 12They have told lies about the LORD; they have said, “He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will not see sword or famine. 13The prophets are nothing but wind; the word is not in them. Let what they threaten happen to them!”

14Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies, says this: Because you people have spoken these words, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people the wood, and the fire will burn them up. 15House of Israel, I am bringing a nation from far away against you, declares the LORD. It is a nation that endures, a nation from ancient times, a nation whose language you do not know; you will not understand what they say. 16Their quiver is like an open grave; they are all 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 break down your fortified towns, the towns you trust in. 18Yet even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not destroy you completely. 19And when the people ask, “Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?” you must answer them, “As you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve strangers in a land not your own.”

20Announce this to the house of Jacob; make it heard in Judah: 21Listen to this, you foolish people with no sense, you who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear. 22Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Will you not tremble in my presence? I set the sand as the boundary of the sea, a lasting decree it cannot cross. Its waters may heave, but they cannot win; its waves may roar, but they cannot pass beyond it. 23But this people has a stubborn, rebellious heart; they have turned away and gone off. 24They do not say to themselves, “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 set for the harvest.” 25Your guilt has turned these blessings away; your sins have kept good things from you. 26For there are wicked people among my people. They lie in wait like hunters crouching for birds; they set a deadly trap and catch human beings. 27Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of what they gained by deceit. That is how they have become powerful and rich. 28They have grown fat and sleek; their evil deeds go beyond all limits. They do not take up the case, the case of the fatherless, yet they prosper; they do not defend the rights of the needy. 29Should I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD. On a nation such as this should I not take vengeance?

30Something shocking and horrible has happened in the land: 31The prophets prophesy lies, and the priests rule with the prophets’ backing, and my people like it this way. But what will you do when the end comes?