Jeremiah 5:1–17

¹“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem.

Look now and take note; search her squares.

If you can find a single person,

anyone who acts justly,

anyone who seeks the truth,

then I will forgive the city.

²Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’

they are swearing falsely.”

³O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?

You struck them, but they felt no pain.

You finished them off,

but they refused to accept discipline.

They have made their faces harder than stone

and refused to repent.

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor;

they have played the fool,

for they do not know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.

⁵I will go to the powerful

and speak to them.

Surely they know the way of the LORD,

the justice of their God.”

But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke

and torn off the chains.

⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down,

a wolf from the desert will ravage them.

A leopard will lie in wait near their cities,

and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces.

For their rebellious acts are many,

and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.

⁷“Why should I forgive you?

Your children have forsaken Me

and sworn by gods that are not gods.

I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery

and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions,

each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things?”

declares the LORD.

“Should I not avenge Myself

on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and ravage them,

but do not finish them off.

Strip off her branches,

for they do not belong to the LORD.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah

have been utterly unfaithful to Me,”

declares the LORD.

¹²They have lied about the LORD and said:

“He will not do anything; harm will not come to us;

we will not see sword or famine.

¹³The prophets are but wind,

for the word is not in them.

So let their own predictions befall them.^a”

¹⁴Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says:

“Because you have spoken this word,

I will make My words a fire in your mouth

and this people the wood it consumes.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you,

O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

“It is an established nation,

an ancient nation,

a nation whose language you do not know

and whose speech you do not understand.

¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves;

they are all mighty men.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and food;

they will consume your sons and daughters;

they will eat up your flocks and herds;

they will feed on your vines and fig trees.

With the sword they will destroy

the fortified cities in which you trust.”