Jer 5:4-5 | NETfull | STEP | I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. They do not know what their God requires of them.

Jeremiah 5:4-5

4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ^{▼▼ Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.}
They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ^{▼▼ Heb “the way of the Lord.”}
They do not know what their God requires of them. ^{▼▼ Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”}
5 I will go to the leaders ^{▼▼ Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”}
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands. ^{▼▼ Heb “the way of the Lord.”}
Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ^{▼▼ Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”}
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him. ^{▼▼ Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.}