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 37

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

1 ^bdZedekiah the son of Josiah, ^bewhom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of ^bfConiah the son of Jehoiakim. 2 ^bgBut neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

3King Zedekiah sent ^bhJehucal the son of ^biShelemiah, and ^bjZephaniah the priest, the son of ^bkMaaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please ^blpray for us to the Lord our God.” 4 ^bmNow Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, ^bnfor he had not yet been put in prison. 5 ^boThe army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when ^bpthe Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, ^bqthey withdrew from Jerusalem.

6Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7“Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who ^brsent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, ^bsPharaoh’s army that came to help you is about to ^btreturn to Egypt, to its own land. 8And ^buthe Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. ^bvThey shall capture it and burn it with fire. 9Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. 10 ^bwFor even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and ^bxburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

11Now when ^bythe Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, 12Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to ^bzthe land of Benjamin ^cato receive his portion there ^cbamong the people. 13When he was at ^ccthe Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of ^cdShelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ^ce“You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” 14And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to ^cfthe officials. 15And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him ^cgand imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made a prison.

16 ^chWhen Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, 17King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him ^cisecretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, ^cj“You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, ^ckthat you have put me in prison? 19 ^clWhere are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? 20Now hear, please, O my lord the king: ^cmlet my humble plea come before you and ^cndo not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” 21So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to ^cothe court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers’ street, ^cpuntil all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in ^cqthe court of the guard.