Jeremiah 5

Run up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now, and find out. Search the open squares of the city. See if you can find one person, anyone who does what is just and looks for the truth. If you can, I will forgive the city.

1Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

NoteThe "broad places" were the open squares inside a city's gates, which served as market and as courtroom: cases were argued there in public, in front of witnesses. Looking there for one person who "does what is just" means looking in the very place where justice was supposed to be on display. The search also echoes Abraham's bargaining over Sodom in Genesis 18, where a handful of righteous people would have spared the city.

2Even when they say, "As surely as the LORD lives," they are swearing to a lie.

2And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

Note"As surely as the LORD lives" was the standard formula for a binding oath, used in courts and contracts. It called God in as witness and as the one who would punish the swearer if the words were false, so swearing it falsely was not a slip of speech but a serious crime.

3LORD, are you not looking for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You wore them down, but they refused to take correction. They set their faces harder than rock. They refused to turn back.

3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

NoteKJV "thou hast consumed them" does not mean burned up; the sense is worn out, finished off. "They have not grieved" means they felt no pain. "Refused to return" is the standard Hebrew idiom for refusing to turn back to God, the word usually translated "repent."

4So I said, "These are only the poor. They are acting like fools, because they do not know the LORD's way or what their God requires."

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

NoteThe poor here are ordinary working people, who had little access to formal instruction in the law and might plausibly be excused as simply not knowing it. "The judgment of their God" means the rulings God has laid down, what he requires, not a coming judgment.

5"I will go to the important people and speak to them, because they know the LORD's way and what their God requires." But they too, all of them, had broken the yoke off their necks and snapped the harness straps.

5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

NoteThe "great men" are the leading families, officials and landowners, the class expected to know the law and administer it. A yoke was the wooden crossbar laid over the necks of plow oxen, held on by leather straps or cords; it was the standard image for the obligations a god or a king laid on a people. Breaking the yoke and snapping the straps is the picture of a draft animal throwing off its driver and bolting.

6So a lion from the forest will kill them. A wolf from the wild places will tear them apart. A leopard will lie watching near their cities, and anyone who goes out will be ripped to pieces. This is because they have broken faith again and again, and their turnings away from God keep piling up.

6Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind KJV "of the evenings" has the same consonants as the word for the desert plain, so the phrase can be read either as "wolf of the dusk" or "wolf of the steppe"; translations divide. Lions, wolves and leopards were real hazards on the edges of Judean towns, not just figures of speech, though here they stand for an attacking army.

7"Why should I forgive you for this? Your children have left me and sworn by things that are not gods at all. I gave them all the food they needed, and then they went after other people's wives and crowded into the houses of prostitutes.

7How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

NoteTo swear by a god was to name that god as the witness who would enforce the oath; swearing by "things that are not gods" means treating those powers as though they could. From here to verse 8 the language of adultery and prostitution runs in two directions at once: it describes sexual conduct, and it is also the prophets' habitual image for a people abandoning their own God for other gods. The Hebrew keeps both in play.

8They were like well-fed stallions in heat. Each one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

8They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

NoteThe Hebrew of KJV "as fed horses in the morning" is uncertain; the likeliest sense is well-fed, roaming stallions. The image is of animals in rut, driven by appetite and beyond control.

9Should I not punish them for these things?" says the LORD. "Should I not pay back a nation like this?

9Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

NoteKJV "visit" is the old legal sense: to come to someone in order to deal with them, here, to punish. "My soul" translates a Hebrew word that commonly stands for the person himself, so the line means simply "shall I not avenge myself."

10Go up along her walls and tear them down, but do not destroy her completely. Strip away her branches, because they do not belong to the LORD.

10Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.

NoteThe Hebrew can be read two ways, and translations split. One reading takes it of a vineyard: go up its rows, strip off its shoots, but do not destroy the vine. The other, which KJV follows, takes it of a city: climb her walls and pull down her battlements. The consonants are the same either way, and the ambiguity is in the text, not in the translating.

11For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been completely unfaithful to me," says the LORD.

11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.

NoteAfter Solomon's death the kingdom split in two. The northern kingdom, called Israel, was destroyed by Assyria about a century before Jeremiah spoke; the southern kingdom, Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital, is the one he is addressing. Naming both means the charge covers the whole people, north and south.

12They have told lies about the LORD. They said, "He will not do anything. Nothing bad will happen to us. We will never see war or hunger.

12They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

NoteKJV "belied the LORD" means told lies about him. "It is not he" is a flat denial, roughly, "he is not the one; he will not act." "Sword nor famine" is a stock pair for what invasion brings: killing in the field, then starvation inside a besieged city.

13The prophets are nothing but wind. God's word is not in them. Let what they threaten happen to them instead."

13And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

NoteThe Hebrew word for wind is also the word for breath and for spirit, the thing prophets claimed to speak by. Calling the prophets "wind" is a deliberate pun: what they claim as the spirit of God is only air.

14So this is what the LORD God of Armies says: "Because you have said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people the wood, and the fire will burn them up.

14Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Note"Hosts" in KJV means armies. The title pictures God as commander of overwhelming forces, both Israel's fighting men and the armies of heaven. The rendering "God of Armies" is the same phrase in modern words.

15Look, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, people of Israel," says the LORD. "It is a strong nation, an old nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you cannot understand.

15Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

NoteJudah's neighbors spoke languages close enough to Hebrew to be broadly understood, Moabite, Phoenician, Aramaic. An army whose speech you could not follow meant no negotiation, no terms, no chance of talking your way out. Jeremiah does not name the nation here; later in the book it is Babylon.

16Their arrow cases are like open graves. Every one of their men is a hardened fighter.

16Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

17They will eat up your harvest and your bread, the food your sons and daughters should have eaten. They will eat up your flocks and herds. They will eat up your grapevines and fig trees. With the sword they will wreck the walled cities you trusted in.

17And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.

NoteKJV "fenced cities" means fortified cities, ringed with defensive walls, not fields marked off with fences. KJV "impoverish" translates a verb meaning to batter down or shatter, the walls are broken, not merely made poor.

18"Even so, in those days," says the LORD, "I will not finish you off completely.

18Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

19And when the people ask, "Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?" you are to answer them, "Just as you left me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve foreigners in a land that is not yours."

19And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

NoteKJV "strange gods" means foreign gods, gods belonging to other peoples; it does not mean odd. The sentence turns on one Hebrew verb used twice: they served foreign gods, so they will serve foreigners. The punishment is worded to mirror the offense exactly.

20Announce this to the family of Jacob. Make it known in Judah. Say:

20Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

NoteJacob was the ancestor who was also given the name Israel; "the house of Jacob" is a standard way of saying the whole nation descended from him.

21"Listen to this, you foolish people with no sense. You have eyes but you do not see. You have ears but you do not hear.

21Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

NoteKJV "without understanding" is literally "without heart." In Hebrew the heart is the seat of thought, judgment and decision, much closer to what English calls the mind than to the feelings. The same word carries the same sense in verses 23 and 24.

22Do you not fear me?" says the LORD. "Will you not shake before me? I set the sand as the boundary of the sea, a lasting limit it cannot cross. The waves heave, but they cannot win. They roar, but they cannot get past it.

22Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

NoteIn the ancient Near East the sea was the standard image of a raw force that has to be held in check, and a shoreline of loose sand holding back the whole ocean was a deliberately absurd-sounding boundary. "Decree" here is the word for a royal edict: a fixed limit set by command and not renegotiated.

23But these people have a stubborn and rebellious heart. They have turned aside and gone their own way.

23But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

24They do not say to themselves, "Let us fear the LORD our God. He gives the rain, both the fall rains and the spring rains, each in its season. He keeps for us the set weeks of harvest."

24Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

NoteThe land had two rain seasons and no rain at all through the summer. The "former" rains came in autumn, around October and November, softening baked ground so it could be plowed and sown; the "latter" rains came in spring, around March and April, filling out the grain before harvest. Miss either and the crop failed. The "appointed weeks of the harvest" are the fixed run of weeks from the barley harvest through the wheat harvest, whose start and end were marked by festivals.

25Your wrongdoing has turned these blessings away. Your sins have kept good things from you.

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

26Among my people there are wicked men. They lie in wait like bird catchers crouching by their traps. They set a trap, and what they catch is people.

26For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

NoteA fowler caught birds by hiding a net or a spring-snare on the ground, scattering bait, then crouching out of sight until something came near enough to take. The point of the comparison is the concealment and the patience, not the violence.

27Like a cage packed with birds, their houses are packed with what they gained by cheating. That is how they became powerful and rich.

27As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

NoteA fowler kept the birds he had taken alive in a woven cage or basket, packed tight, to be carried to market. The houses of these men are stuffed the same way with what they have trapped out of other people.

28They have grown fat and sleek. They have gone even further than wicked men usually go. They will not take up the case of the orphan, yet things go well for them, and they will not defend the rights of the poor.

28They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

NoteTo "judge the cause" of someone is to take up their lawsuit and argue it. Orphans and widows had no adult male relative to represent them at the city-gate court, so the law made it the duty of judges and elders to plead their case for them; refusing to do so left them with no legal standing at all. The clause KJV renders "yet they prosper" is grammatically difficult in Hebrew and may instead mean "so that the orphan might prosper": that is, they will not act so that things go well for him.

29Should I not punish them for these things?" says the LORD. "Should I not pay back a nation like this?

29Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30Something shocking and sickening has happened in the land.

30A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

NoteKJV "wonderful" does not mean delightful. In 1611 it meant something that causes amazement, and here the amazement is horror, the pair of words means appalling and stomach-turning.

31The prophets speak lies. The priests rule by their own power. And my people love it that way. But what will you do when the end comes?

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

NoteProphets and priests were the two recognized religious offices: prophets delivered messages claimed to come from God, priests ran the temple and gave authoritative rulings on the law. KJV "bear rule by their means" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning literally "rule by their hands," which may mean the priests rule on their own authority, or that they rule under the direction of the false prophets; both readings are defended and the Hebrew does not settle it.