Jeremiah 5
Summary for Jer 5:1-2: 5:1-2 a A just person lives according to God’s laws and deals with other people accordingly. An honest person is dependable, truthful, and faithful to God. Jeremiah did not find either justice or honesty. Although some people were under oath, their claims of innocence were false. Their behavior showed that they had perjured themselves (4:2 b; 7:9 c; Gen 18:23-32 d; Isa 48:1 e; Ezek 22:30 f; Titus 1:15-16 g).5:3 h Even when crushed by the disaster of war, the people ignored God and refused to repent of their sins (Isa 9:13 i).
Summary for Jer 5:4-5: 5:4-5 j Jeremiah searched for an economic reason behind Jerusalem’s rebellion but found that the leaders, despite their advantages, were as rebellious as the uneducated poor.
• A wooden yoke was placed on the neck of a farm animal, with chains attached to a plow or another implement for working the fields (cp. 27:2-12 k; Ps 2:3 l).
5:6 m The Babylonians would attack like a lion, a wolf, and a leopard. These ferocious beasts were capable of destroying human life. The people’s rebellion and sins were very serious to the Lord (4:7 n; 30:14-15 o; Ps 104:20 p; Ezek 22:27 q; Hos 13:7 r; Hab 1:8 s; Zeph 3:3 t).
Summary for Jer 5:7-8: 5:7-8 u These verses list the evidence of sins the people had committed, including rejection of the Lord, submission to pagan deities, and sexual misconduct (7:9 v; 12:16 w; Num 25:1-3 x; Deut 32:21 y; Josh 23:7 z; Zeph 1:5 aa; Gal 4:8 ab). Idolatry and adultery were closely connected in Israel because both represented the breach of an exclusive covenant.
5:9 ac The Lord regarded the people’s sins as worthy of punishment (9:9 ad; 13:27 ae; 29:23 af; Ezek 22:11 ag).
Summary for Jer 5:10-13: 5:10-13 ah The Lord delivered a decree to destroy Judah’s vineyards, which probably represented Judah itself (see Isa 5:1-7 ai; 27:2-6 aj). The people were ignoring the Lord. They did not belong to him as his children, and he could not overlook the treachery of their love for idols (Jer 3:6 ak; 4:27 al; 7:27 am).
Summary for Jer 5:12-13: 5:12-13 an Even with the enemy looming on the northern horizon, the people thought that nothing bad would happen to them (14:13 ao; Isa 47:8 ap). They did not respect God’s prophets (literally the prophets) either.
• Some interpreters end the people’s quote with Jer 5:12 aq and attribute 5:13 ar to the Lord. The windbags would then refer to false prophets.
Summary for Jer 5:14-19: 5:14-19 as The approaching army was probably that of Babylon, which attacked Jerusalem in 605 BC. The Lord called the Babylonians to carry out the punishment he had promised (see Deut 28:15-62 at).
5:15 au The Babylonian language was a Semitic language like Hebrew, but the Israelites did not understand it.
Summary for Jer 5:16-17: 5:16-17 av The soldiers of the well-trained and well-equipped Babylonian army treated their victims viciously and destroyed everything of value in the lands they conquered (cp. Hab 1:6-10 aw).
Summary for Jer 5:18-19: 5:18-19 ax The Lord comforted Jeremiah with the knowledge that the destruction would not be total, and he prepared the prophet to respond to those who wondered why the Lord would bring such severe judgment upon them.
Summary for Jer 5:20-21: 5:20-21 ay to Israel: Literally to the house of Jacob. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation.
• To be foolish is to engage in rash and immoral behavior that ignores consequences.
• senseless: Literally no heart. When “heart” is used in a negative sense, it means that a person or group does not desire to do moral acts and so disdains the intelligent behavior that is pleasing to God.
• The people’s ears and eyes functioned (see study note on 6:10), but they stubbornly shut out the true meaning of what they heard and saw (Isa 6:9 az; Ezek 12:2 ba; Mark 8:18 bb).
5:22 bc The people should at least respect the Lord for his power and tremble at the thought of his unleashing that power against them. If even the mighty sea was unable to pass the boundaries the Lord had set for it, surely the rebellion of little Jerusalem would fail.
Summary for Jer 5:23-25: 5:23-25 bd The people falsely thought that they could do without the Lord, who provided rain for their crops (Deut 11:14 be). This wickedness caused them to lose wonderful blessings and good things (Jer 3:3 bf).
Summary for Jer 5:26-28: 5:26-28 bg Among the people of Jerusalem were wicked men who grew fat and sleek by oppressing orphans and ... the poor (7:6 bh).
Summary for Jer 5:29-31: 5:29-31 bi The people’s sins (5:26-28 bj) fully justified the Lord’s punishment, but the religious leaders committed several more. The prophets told lies and called them prophecies from the Lord (14:14 bk; Ezek 13:6 bl). The priests, assigned to serve the people, had become tyrants who dominated the people with an iron hand. Amazingly, the people approved of their leaders’ new roles, even though this situation left them unprepared for the doom descending upon them (Mic 2:11 bm).
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