Through My Bible Yr 02 – March 15
Jeremiah 5 – 6
A Dialogue About Jerusalem’s Sin
The Lord [1]
Jeremiah 5
1 Hurry here and there through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take note.
Search her public squares.
See if you can find just one person who deals justly
and who seeks to be faithful.
If you can, I will forgive her.
2 Though they say, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
they are still swearing falsely.
The Prophet
3 Lord, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness?
You struck them,
but they felt no pain.
You crushed them,
but they refused discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock
and refused to repent.
4 Then I said:
These are only the poor.
They are foolish,
because they do not know the way of the Lord
and the just verdict of their God.
5 I will go to the great men and speak to them.
Certainly they know the way of the Lord,
the just verdict of their God.
But all of them together have broken the yoke
and have torn off their chains.
6 That is why a lion from the forest will strike them.
A wolf from the desert will attack them,
and a leopard is watching their cities.
Everyone who comes out of them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellions are so many,
and their unfaithfulness is so great.
The Lord
7 Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me
and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I satisfied their needs,
yet they committed adultery
and crowded into prostitutes’ houses.
8 They are well-fed, lusty [2] stallions,
each one neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I not punish them for this? declares the Lord.
Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this one?
10 Go through her vineyards and destroy them,
but do not destroy them completely.
Cut away the branches,
because they do not belong to the Lord.
11 The house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been completely unfaithful to me, declares the Lord.
12 They have lied about the Lord.
They say, “He is nothing.
No disaster will come upon us.
We will not see sword or famine.
13 The prophets are only wind.
The word is not in them,
so let what they say come upon them.” [3]
14 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, says.
Because they have said this,
I will make my words in your mouth a fire.
These people are the wood, and it will burn them up.
15 Now, O house of Israel, I am bringing against you
a nation from far away, declares the Lord.
I am bringing an enduring nation, an ancient nation.
They are a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open grave.
They are all strong warriors.
17 They will consume your harvest and your bread.
They will consume your sons and daughters.
They will consume your flocks and herds,
and they will consume your vines and fig trees.
With their swords they will beat down your fortified cities,
the places in which you trust.
18 Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not destroy you completely. 19 When the people ask, “Why has the Lord our God done this to us?” answer them, “Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.”
20 Declare this to the house of Jacob!
Proclaim it in Judah!
21 Hear this, you foolish, senseless people!
You have eyes but you cannot see.
You have ears but you cannot hear.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I made sand as the boundary for the sea,
a permanent barrier that it cannot cross.
The waves toss back and forth,
but they cannot get past it.
The towering waves crash,
but they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart.
They have turned aside and wandered away.
24 They do not say to themselves,
“We should fear the Lord our God,
who sends autumn rains and spring rains at the right time,
who reserves for us enough weeks for the harvest.”
25 But your guilty actions have kept these things at a distance.
Your sins have kept these good things away from you.
26 Wicked men are found among my people.
Like men who trap birds, they lie in wait for my people
to set traps and catch people. [4]
27 Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit.
That is how they became powerful and rich.
28 They have become fat and sleek.
They have gone beyond evil words. [5]
They do not argue a case for the fatherless to help them win,
and they do not seek justice for the poor.
29 Should I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord.
Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this one?
30 A terrible thing has taken place.
A horrible thing has happened in the land.
31 Prophets prophesy lies,
priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love this.
But what will you do in the end?
The Siege Is Coming
The Lord [6]
Jeremiah 6
1 Flee for safety, people of Benjamin!
Get out of Jerusalem!
Blow the ram’s horn in Tekoa. [7]
Raise a signal over Beth Hakkerem!
Disaster and great destruction threaten from the north.
2 I will silence the beautiful, pampered daughter of Zion. [8]
3 Shepherds and their flocks will come against her.
They will pitch their tents all around.
Each one will pasture his flock in his own spot.
The Enemy
4 Consecrate yourselves for war against her.
Rise up, we will attack at noon!
The People of Judah
We are doomed! The day is ending.
The evening shadows are getting longer.
The Enemy
5 We should get up and attack at night
and destroy its citadels.
The Lord
6 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Cut down her trees.
Raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished.
There is nothing but oppression inside her.
7 Just as a well pours out fresh [9] water,
she pours out fresh evil.
Violence and destruction are heard in her.
Sickness and wounds are always before me.
8 Be warned, Jerusalem,
or I will turn away from you.
I will make your land desolate,
so that no one can live there.
9 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
They will glean what remains of Israel
as thoroughly as a vine.
Like someone gathering grapes,
pass your hand over the branches again.
10 Who can I speak to?
Who will listen to my warning? [10]
Look! Their ears are uncircumcised.
They will not be able to hear.
Indeed, to them the word of the Lord is an embarrassment.
They take no pleasure in it.
11 I am full of the Lord’s wrath, [11]
and I cannot hold it in.
Pour it out on the children in the street
and on the young men gathered together.
Both husband and wife will be taken,
the old along with the very old.
12 Their houses will be turned over to others,
together with their fields and their wives,
because I will stretch out my hand against those who live in the land,
declares the Lord.
13 From the least of them to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain.
From prophets to priests, they all practice deceit.
14 They have treated the wound of my people as if it were nothing serious.
They say, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace!
15 Are they ashamed of the detestable things they have done?
No, they are not ashamed at all!
They do not know how to be ashamed.
So they will fall with the fallen.
They will be thrown down when I punish them, says the Lord.
16 This is what the Lord says.
Stand at the crossroads and look.
Ask about the ancient paths.
Ask where the good road is.
Walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, “We will not walk in it.”
17 I set watchmen over you and said,
“Listen to the sound of the ram’s horn!”
But you said, “We will not listen.”
18 Therefore, listen, you nations!
You witnesses, observe what will happen to them.
19 Listen, O earth.
I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not listened to my words,
and they have rejected my law.
20 What use to me is incense from Sheba
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not appealing to me.
Your sacrifices do not please me.
21 Therefore this is what the Lord says.
Look, I am going to place obstacles in front of this people.
Parents and children alike will stumble over them.
Friends and neighbors will perish.
22 This is what the Lord says.
Look, a nation is coming from a land in the north.
A great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 Its warriors grip bows and spears.
They are cruel and merciless.
They sound like the roaring sea.
They ride horses, arranged like soldiers ready for battle
against you, O daughter of Zion.
The People of Judah
24 We have heard the news about them,
and our hands hang limp.
Anguish grips us like a woman in labor.
25 Do not go out to the field.
Do not walk on the road,
because the enemy has a sword.
There is terror on every side.
26 Put on sackcloth, daughter of my people.
Roll in ashes.
Mourn as you would for an only son,
because suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
The Lord
27 I have made you like someone who tests metals.
My people are the ore that is being tested.
Observe them,
and examine their ways.
28 They are all stubborn rebels,
walking in slander.
They are as hard as bronze and iron,
and all of them are contaminated.
29 The bellows blows hot to melt away the refining agent [12] with fire.
The refining agent is completely used up, but the evil is not removed.
30 They are classified as rejected silver,
because the Lord has rejected them.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 5:1 The Hebrew text does not provide introductory words to mark the frequent changes of speaker. The translation provides headings to help the reader track these changes.
- Jeremiah 5:8 The meaning of each of these two adjectives is uncertain.
- Jeremiah 5:13 This closing quotation mark may be placed at the end of verse 12.
- Jeremiah 5:26 The meanings of two Hebrew words in this verse are uncertain.
- Jeremiah 5:28 Or their evil deeds overflow
- Jeremiah 6:1 On the basis of the context and the gender of the Hebrew pronouns, the captions identify various speakers: the Lord, the enemy, and the people. In some instances these captions and divisions of the text are debatable.
- Jeremiah 6:1 The Hebrew word taka, blow, sounds like the name of the village Tekoa.
- Jeremiah 6:2 The meanings of two Hebrew words in this verse are uncertain.
- Jeremiah 6:7 Literally cool
- Jeremiah 6:10 The translation observes the traditional distinction between who and whom in formal prose but also recognizes the lessening use of this distinction in conversation.
- Jeremiah 6:11 The Lord refers to himself in the third person. This is not unusual in Hebrew poetry.
- Jeremiah 6:29 Literally lead
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
