Jubilee2000 - Jeremiah - 5

5:1  Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and find out and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be [any] that execute judgment, that seek the truth; and [I] will pardon the city.

5:2  And if they should say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

5:3  O LORD, [are] not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they did not feel it; thou hast consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive chastisement; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

5:4  Therefore I said, Surely these [are] poor; they have become foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD [nor] the judgment of their God.

5:5  I will go unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, [and] the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke [and] burst the bonds.

5:6  Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, [and] a wolf of the desert shall destroy them and a tiger shall lie in wait over their cities; anyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces because their rebellions have been multiplied, [and] their backslidings are increased.

5:7  How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy sons have forsaken me and sworn by [them that are] not gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

5:8  They were [as] fed horses in the morning; each one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

5:9  Shall I not visit for these [things]? said the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:10  Go ye up upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements for they [are] not the LORD'S.

5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made a firm decision to rebel against me, saith the LORD.

5:12  They have denied the LORD and said, He [is] not; and evil shall not come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine;

5:13  but the prophets shall become like wind, and there is no word in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

5:14  Therefore thus hath the LORD God of the hosts said: Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

5:15  Behold, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, saith the LORD; it [is] a mighty nation, it [is] an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou dost not know, neither dost [thou] understand what they say.

5:16  Their quiver [is] as an open sepulcher; they [are] all mighty men.

5:17  And they shall eat up thine harvest and thy bread, [which] thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees; and thy fenced cities, in which thou dost trust, they shall bring to nothing with the sword.

5:18  Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

5:19  And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why does the LORD our God do all these [things] unto us? Then thou shalt answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land [that is] not yours.

5:20  Declare this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah, saying,

5:21  Hear now this, O foolish people and without heart, who have eyes and do not see; who have ears, and do not hear:

5:22  Do ye not fear me? saith the LORD; will ye not tremble at my presence, who placed the sand [for] the bound of the sea by an eternal order, which cannot be broken? Storms shall raise themselves up, yet they shall not prevail; their waves shall roar, yet they shall not pass over it.

5:23  But this people have a false and rebellious heart; they turned and went.

5:24  Neither do they say in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; he shall keep us [with] the appointed weeks of the harvest.

5:25  Your iniquities have turned away these [things], and your sins have withheld good [things] from you.

5:26  For among my people were found wicked [men]: they lay in wait as he that sets snares; they set a trap of perdition to catch men.

5:27  As a cage full of birds, so [are] their houses full of deceit; thus they became great and rich.

5:28  They are become fat; they shine; yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they did not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless; with all this they made themselves prosperous; and they did not judge the cause of the poor.

5:29  Shall I not visit for these [things]? saith the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:30  A horrible and ugly thing is committed in the land:

5:31  The prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their hands; and my people love [to have it] so. What will ye do in the end thereof?: