chapter: 5
Verse 1
“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.
Verse 2
Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”
Verse 3
O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
Verse 4
Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.
Verse 5
I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Verse 6
Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them, a wolf of the evenings will destroy them, a leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding has increased.
Verse 7
“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.
Verse 8
They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
Verse 9
Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Verse 10
“Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not Yahweh’s.
Verse 11
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.
Verse 12
They have denied Yahweh, and said, “It is not he. Evil will won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine.
Verse 13
The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”
Verse 14
Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.
Verse 15
Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say.
Verse 16
Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.
Verse 17
They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.
Verse 18
“But even in those days,” says Yahweh, “I will not make a full end of you.
Verse 19
It will happen, when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
Verse 20
“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
Verse 21
‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding; who have eyes, and don’t see; who have ears, and don’t hear:
Verse 22
Don’t you fear me?’ says Yahweh ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’
Verse 23
“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.
Verse 24
They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
Verse 25
“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.
Verse 26
For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.
Verse 27
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.
Verse 28
They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t judge the right of the needy.
Verse 29
“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Verse 30
“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.
Verse 31