Jeremiah 5

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

1 ^aRun to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
look and take note!
Search her squares to see
^bif you can find a man,
one who does justice
and seeks truth,
^cthat I may pardon her.
2 ^dThough they say, “As the Lord lives,”
^eyet they swear falsely.
3O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?
^fYou have struck them down,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
^gThey have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to repent.
4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
they have no sense;
^hfor they do not know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.
5I will go to the great
and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the Lord,
the justice of their God.”
ⁱBut they all alike had broken the yoke;
they had burst the bonds.
6 Therefore ^ja lion from the forest shall strike them down;
a ^kwolf from the desert shall devastate them.
^lA leopard is watching their cities;
everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
their ^mapostasies are great.
7 ⁿ“How can I pardon you?
Your children have forsaken me
^oand have sworn by those who are no gods.
^pWhen I fed them to the full,
^qthey committed adultery
^rand trooped to the houses of whores.
8They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
^seach neighing ^tfor his neighbor’s wife.
9 ^uShall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord;
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?
10 ^v“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
^wbut make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
for they are not the Lord’s.
11 ^xFor the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly treacherous to me,

declares the Lord.
12They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
^yno disaster will come upon us,
^znor shall we see sword or famine.
13The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, ^aaI am making my words in your mouth ^aba fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 ^acBehold, I am bringing against you
a nation from afar, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.
It is an enduring nation;
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
^adnor can you understand what they say.
16 ^aeTheir quiver is like ^afan open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
17 ^agThey shall eat up your harvest and your food;
they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your ^ahfortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword.”
18“But even in those days, declares the Lord, ^aiI will not make a full end of you. 19And when your people say, ^aj‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, ^akso you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;
proclaim it in Judah:
21“Hear this, ^alO foolish and senseless people,
^amwho have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
22 ^anDo you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand ^aoas the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though ^apthey roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 ^aqBut 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 the Lord our God,
^arwho gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
^asthe weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 ^atYour iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.
26For wicked men are found among my people;
^authey lurk like fowlers lying in wait. ▼

▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

^awThey set a trap;
they catch men.
27Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28 ^axthey have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
^aythey judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 ^azShall I not punish them for these things?

declares the Lord,
and shall I not avenge myself
on a nation such as this?”
30 An appalling and ^bahorrible thing
has happened in the land:
31 ^bbthe prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
^bcmy people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 11

The Broken Covenant

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ^bd“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^beCursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant 4that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, ^bffrom the iron furnace, saying, ^bgListen to my voice, and do all that I command you. ^bhSo shall you be my people, and I will be your God, 5 ^bithat I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, ^bjto give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”

6And the Lord said to me, ^bk“Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ^blHear the words of this covenant and do them. 7For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, ^bmwarning them persistently, even to this day, saying, ^bnObey my voice. 8 ^boYet they did not obey or incline their ear, ^bpbut everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all ^bqthe words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

9Again the Lord said to me, ^br“A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10They have turned back to ^bsthe iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. ^btThey have gone after other gods to serve them. ^buThe house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. 11Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. ^bvThough they cry to me, I will not listen to them. 12Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^bwwill go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, ^bxbut they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. 13 ^byFor your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, ^bzaltars to make offerings to Baal.

14“Therefore ^cado not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, ^cbfor I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. 15 ^ccWhat right has my beloved in my house, ^cdwhen she has done many vile deeds? Can even sacrificial flesh avert your doom? ^ceCan you then exult? 16The Lord once called you ^cf‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But ^cgwith the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and ^chits branches will be consumed. 17The Lord of hosts, ^ciwho planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, ^cjprovoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”

18 The Lord made it known to me and I knew;
then you showed me their deeds.
19But I was ^cklike a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
I did not know ^clit was against me
they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
^cmlet us cut him off from ^cnthe land of the living,
that his name be remembered no more.”
20But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously,
who ^cotests ^cpthe heart and the mind,
^cqlet me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
21Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of ^crAnathoth, ^cswho seek your life, and say, ^ct“Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand”— 22therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: “Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine, 23and none of them shall be left. For I will bring disaster upon the men of ^cuAnathoth, ^cvthe year of their punishment.”