MKJV - Jeremiah - 5

5:1  Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in her open places, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon her.

5:2  And though they say, As the LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

5:3  O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

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

5:5  I will go up for myself to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD and the judgment of their God. But these have broken the yoke together and have torn off the bonds!

5:6  Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, and a wolf of the deserts shall rob them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them shall be torn in pieces, because their sins are many and their backslidings are multiplied.

5:7  Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

5:8  They were like lusty, well-fed stallions in the morning; every one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

5:9  Shall I not judge for these things? says the LORD. And shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:10  Go up on her vine-rows and destroy; but do not make a full end; take away her branches, for they are not the LORD's.

5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very deceitfully against Me, says the LORD.

5:12  They have lied against the LORD and said, It is not He; neither shall evil come on us; nor shall we see sword nor famine.

5:13  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them; so it shall be done to them.

5:14  Therefore so says the LORD God of hosts, Because you spoke this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and these people wood, and it shall devour them.

5:15  Lo, I will bring a nation on you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor understand what they say.

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

5:17  And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees. One shall beat down your fortified cities with the sword, those in which you trust.

5:18  But even in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a complete end with you.

5:19  And it will be, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God do all these {things} to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land {that is} not yours.

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

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

5:22  Do you not fear Me? says the LORD. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?

5:23  But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

5:24  And they do not say in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives both the former and the latter rain in its season; He reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

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

5:26  For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

5:27  Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

5:28  They have become fat, they shine. Yes, they go past the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may get rich; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

5:29  Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD. Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:30  An astounding and horrible thing has happened in the land.

5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so, and what will you do at the end of it?