Jeremiah 5-8

Common English Bible

5 Search every street in Jerusalem,
    comb the squares,
    look far and wide
        for one person,
        even one who acts justly
        and seeks truth that I may pardon her!
² Even when making a pledge—“As the Lord lives”—
    they swear falsely.
³ Lord, don’t you look for integrity?
You have struck them down,
    but they didn’t even cringe.
You have crushed them,
    but they have ignored your discipline.
They make their faces harder than rock
    and refuse to return.
⁴ Then I thought to myself,
    These are the poor who don’t know better!
    They don’t understand the Lord’s way
        or the justice of their God.
⁵ Let me go and speak to the powerful people,
    for they will surely know the Lord’s way
    and the justice of their God.
But they too have broken their yoke
    and shattered the chains.
⁶ Therefore, a lion from the forest will attack them;
    a wolf from the desert will destroy them;
    a leopard prowling around their towns
        will tear to pieces anyone venturing out—
        because of their many crimes
        and countless acts of unfaithfulness.
⁷ How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
        and swear by gods that are not gods.
Although I could have satisfied them,
    they committed adultery,
        dashing off to the prostitution house.
⁸ They are lusty stallions roving about,
    snorting for another’s wife.
⁹ The Lord declares:
    Shouldn’t I confront these acts?
    Shouldn’t I take revenge on such a nation?

¹⁰ Climb through her vineyards and ravage them,
    although not completely.
Prune back her branches,
    because they aren’t the Lord’s.
¹¹ The people of Israel and Judah
    have been utterly faithless to me,
        declares the Lord.
¹² They have lied about the Lord
    and said, “He’ll do nothing!^[a]
Disaster won’t come upon us;
    we won’t see war or famine.”
¹³ The prophets are so much wind;
    the word isn’t in them.
        Thus and so may it be done to them.

Because you have spoken this way,
    I will put my words
        in your mouth as a fire;
    it will consume the people,
        who are but kindling.
¹⁵ I am about to bring a distant nation against you,
        people of Israel,
        declares the Lord.
    It is an established nation,
        an ancient nation,
        a nation whose language you don’t know,
        whose speech you won’t understand.
¹⁶ Its weapons are deadly;^[b]
    its warriors are many.
¹⁷ It will devour your harvest and food;
    it will devour your sons and daughters;
    it will devour your flocks and herds;
    it will devour your vines and fig trees;
    it will shatter your fortified towns in which you trust—
        with the sword!

²⁰ Declare this to the people of Jacob,
    announce it in Judah:
²¹ Listen, you foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes but don’t see
        and ears but don’t hear.
²² Shouldn’t you fear me,
        declares the Lord,
    and tremble before me,
        the one who set the shoreline for the sea,
        an ancient boundary that it can’t pass?
Though its waves may rise and roar,
    they can’t pass the limits I have set.
²³ And yet the people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
    they turn and go their own way.
²⁴ They don’t say in their hearts,
    Let’s fear the Lord our God,
        who provides rain in autumn and spring
        and who assures us of a harvest in its season.
²⁵ Your wrongdoing has turned these blessings^[c] away.
    Your sin has robbed you of good.
²⁶ Criminals are found among my people;
    they set traps to catch people,
        like hunters lying in wait.^[d]
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    so their houses are full of loot.
No wonder they are rich and powerful
²⁸     and have grown fat and sleek!
To be sure, their evil deeds exceed all limits,
    and yet they prosper.
They are indifferent to the plight of the orphan,
    reluctant to defend the rights of the poor.
²⁹ Shouldn’t I punish such acts?
        declares the Lord.
    Shouldn’t I repay that nation for its deeds?
³⁰ An awful, a terrible thing
    has happened in the land:
³¹         The prophets prophesy falsely,
        the priests rule at their sides,^[e]
        and my people love it this way!
But what will you do when the end comes?

6 Escape, people of Benjamin,
    get out of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
    sound the alarm in Beth-haccherem;
        for disaster looms from the north,
        massive devastation.
² You are like a lovely pasture, Daughter Zion.^[f]
3     Shepherds come to her with their flocks.
    They pitch their tents around her
        and graze in their place.
⁴ “Prepare for battle against her;
    get ready; let’s attack by noon!
Oh, no! Daylight is fading,
    and the evening shadows lengthen.
⁵ Get ready, let’s attack by night
    and destroy her fortresses!”
⁶ The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:
Cut down her trees,
    and build siege ramps against Jerusalem.
This city must be held accountable,^[g]
    for there’s nothing but oppression in her midst.
⁷ As a well brings forth fresh water,
    she brings forth evil.
Violence and destruction are heard within her;
    injury and wounds are ever before me.
⁸ Hear me out,^[h] Jerusalem,
    or else I’ll turn away from you
        and reduce you to ruins,
        a land unfit to live in.

⁹ This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says:
From top to bottom, let them harvest
    the remaining few in Israel.
        Pick clean every
        last grape on the vine!
¹⁰ To whom can I speak and warn?
    How can I get someone’s attention?
        Their ears are shut tight,^[i]
        so they won’t hear.
They are ashamed of the Lord’s word
    and take no pleasure in it.
¹¹ But I’m filled with the Lord’s rage
    and am tired of holding it in.

²² The Lord proclaims:
An army is on the move
        from the northern regions;
    a great nation is roused
        from the ends of the earth.
²³ Equipped with bow and spear,
    they are cruel;
    they show no mercy.
Their horsemen sound
    like the roaring sea,
        arrayed in battle formation
        against you, Daughter Zion.
²⁴ We have heard reports of them
    and are panic-stricken;
    distress overwhelms us,
        pain like that of a woman in labor.
²⁵ Don’t go out into the field!
    Don’t walk on the road!
        The enemies’ sword
            terrorizes at every turn.
²⁶ My people,
    put on funeral clothes and roll in ashes;
    weep and wail as for an only child,
        because the destroyer will suddenly descend upon us.

²⁷ I have made you a tester of metals,
    to examine my people^[m]
    to know and prove their ways.
²⁸ They are tin^[n] and iron;
    they are headstrong and rebellious.
They live to slander.
    They act corruptly—every last one!
²⁹ The bellows roar;
    the lead is consumed.^[o]
Yet the refining fails;
    the impurities^[p] remain.
³⁰ They are called “rejected silver,”
    for the Lord has rejected them.

²⁹ Cut off your hair and cast it away;
    grieve on the well-traveled paths.
The Lord has rejected you
    and has cast off a generation that provokes his anger.

⁴ Say to them, The Lord proclaims:
When people fall down, don’t they get up?
    When they turn aside, don’t they turn back?
⁵ Why then does this people, rebellious Jerusalem,
    persistently turn away from me?
They cling to deceit
    and refuse to return.
⁶ I have listened carefully
    but haven’t heard a word of truth from them.
No one regrets their wrongdoing;
    no one says, “What have I done?”
Everyone turns to their own course,
    like a stallion dashing into the thick of battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows the seasons,
    and the dove, swallow,^[t] and crane^[u]
        return in due time.
            But my people don’t know the Lord’s ways.
⁸ How can you say, “We are wise;
    we possess the Lord’s Instruction,”
        when the lying pen of the scribes has surely distorted it?
⁹ The wise will be shamed and shocked
    when they are caught.
Look, they have rejected the Lord’s word;
    what kind of wisdom is that?
¹⁰ Therefore, I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to their captors.
From the least to the greatest,
    all are eager to profit.
From prophet to priest,
    all trade in falsehood.
¹¹ They treat the wound of my people
    as if it were nothing:
“All is well, all is well,” they insist,
    when in fact nothing is well.
¹² They should be ashamed
        of their detestable practices,
    but they have no shame;
        they don’t even blush!
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen
    and stumble when disaster arrives,
        declares the Lord.
¹³ I will put an end to them,^[v]
        declares the Lord;
    there are no grapes on the vine,
        no figs on the tree,
        only withered leaves.
They have squandered what I have given them!^[w]

¹⁴ Why are we sitting here?
    Come, let’s go to the fortified towns
        and meet our doom there.
The Lord our God has doomed us
    by giving us poisoned water to drink,
        because we have sinned against the Lord!
¹⁵ We longed for relief,
        but received none;
    for a time of healing,
        but found only terror.
¹⁶ The snorting of their horses can be heard as far as Dan;
    the neighing of their stallions makes the whole land tremble.
They come to devour the land and everything in it,
    towns and people alike.
¹⁷ See, I’m sending serpents against you,
    vipers that you can’t charm,
    and they will bite you,
        declares the Lord.
¹⁸ No healing,
    only grief;
        my heart is broken.^[x]
19 Listen to the weeping of my people
        all across the land:
    “Isn’t the Lord in Zion?
        Is her king no longer there?”
Why then did they anger me with their images,
    with pointless foreign gods?
²⁰ “The harvest is past,
    the summer has ended,
        yet we aren’t saved.”
²¹ Because my people are crushed,
    I am crushed;
    darkness and despair overwhelm me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then have my people
    not been restored to health?