Jeremiah 5:1–6

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.