Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Jeremiah 5
Searching Jerusalem for faithfulness
“Roam Jerusalem’s streets; look and find out!
Search her squares.
If you find one person who does justice
and seeks faithfulness,
I will forgive her.
Even when they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’
they swear falsely.”
LORD, do your eyes not look for faithfulness?
You struck them, but they felt no pain;
you consumed them, but they refused discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock
and refused to return.
I thought, “These are only the poor;
they act foolishly because they do not know
the LORD’s way, their God’s judgment.
Let me go to the great and speak with them,
for they know the LORD’s way, their God’s judgment.”
But together they too had broken the yoke
and torn apart the bonds.
So a lion from the forest will strike them,
a wolf from the deserts will devastate them,
and a leopard will watch their cities.
Everyone leaving them will be torn apart,
for their rebellions are many
and their turning away is great.
“How can I forgive you?
Your children abandoned me
and swore by what are not gods.
I fed them fully, but they committed adultery
and crowded into a prostitute’s house.
They were well-fed, lustful stallions,
each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Should I not call them to account for this?” declares the LORD.
“Should I not take vengeance on a nation like this?
Climb through her vine rows and destroy,
but do not make a complete end.
Strip off her shoots,
for they do not belong to the LORD.
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have thoroughly betrayed me,” declares the LORD.
They have denied the LORD, saying,
“It is not he! Disaster will not come upon us;
we will see neither sword nor famine.
The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Let this happen to them!”
So this is what the LORD, God of hosts, says:
“Because you have said this,
look, I am making my words in your mouth fire
and this people wood.
The fire will consume them.
Look, I am bringing a nation from far away against you,
house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
“It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
whose speech you cannot understand.
Its quiver is an open grave;
all its men are warriors.
It will devour your harvest and your bread,
devour your sons and daughters,
devour your flocks and cattle,
devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword it will shatter
the fortified cities you trust.
Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a complete end of you.
“When you ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘As you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’
A people who will not listen
“Announce this in the house of Jacob;
proclaim it in Judah:
‘Hear this, foolish people without sense,
who have eyes but do not see,
ears but do not hear.
Do you not fear me?’ declares the LORD.
‘Will you not tremble before me,
who set sand as the sea’s boundary,
an everlasting limit it cannot cross?
Its waves surge, but cannot prevail;
they roar, but cannot cross it.
But this people has a stubborn, rebellious heart;
they turned aside and went away.
They do not say in their hearts,
“Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives rain in its season, autumn and spring rain,
and keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.”
Your offenses have turned these away;
your sins have kept good things from you.
For wicked people are found among my people.
They lie in wait like crouching birdcatchers;
they set a trap and catch human beings.
Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of deceit.
That is how they became great and rich.
They have grown fat and sleek;
their evil knows no bounds.
They do not judge the orphan’s case to secure justice,
and they do not defend the poor person’s rights.
Should I not call them to account for this?’ declares the LORD.
‘Should I not take vengeance on a nation like this?’
“An appalling, horrible thing has happened in the land:
prophets prophesy falsely,
priests rule at their direction,
and my people love it this way.
But what will you do when the end comes?”