Jeremiah 5

Run about in the streets of Jerusalem and see and know, and seek in her broad places whether you can find a man, whether there is one doing justice and seeking faithfulness; and I will be merciful to them, says the Lord.

'The Lord lives,' they say; so then, are they not swearing by falsehoods?

O Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness. You scourged them, but they felt no pain; you made an end of them, but they refused to receive discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and refused to turn back.

And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they had no ability, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God.

I will go to the great ones and speak to them, for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of God. But behold, with one accord they broke the yoke and tore apart the bonds.

Therefore a lion from the forest struck them, and a wolf destroyed them as far as their houses, and a leopard kept watch over their cities; all who go out from them shall be hunted, for they multiplied their impieties, they grew strong in their turnings away.

For which of these shall I be merciful to you? Your sons forsook me and swore by those that are not gods. I fed them full, and they committed adultery and lodged in the houses of prostitutes.

They became horses mad for females; each one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

Shall I not punish for these things, says the Lord? Or shall not my soul take vengeance on such a nation as this?

Go up onto her battlements and tear them down, but do not make a full end; leave her supports, for they belong to the Lord.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have utterly dealt treacherously against me, says the Lord.

They lied to their own Lord and said, These things are not so; evils will not come upon us, and we shall not see sword and famine.

Our prophets were but wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them; so shall it be done to them.

Therefore thus says the Lord Almighty: Because you spoke this word, behold, I have made my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Behold, I am bringing upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord, a nation whose sound of tongue you will not understand.

They are all mighty.

And they shall devour your harvest and your bread; they shall devour your sons and your daughters; they shall devour your flocks and your calves; they shall devour your vineyards and your fig orchards and your olive groves; and with the sword they shall thresh your fortified cities in which you trust.

And it shall be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not make a full end of you.

And it shall be, when you say, For what reason did the Lord our God do all these things to us? then you shall say to them, Because you served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land not your own.

Declare these things in the house of Iakob, and let it be heard in Iouda.

Hear now these things, O foolish and heartless people: they have eyes and do not see; they have ears and do not hear.

Will you not fear me, says the Lord, or not stand in awe before my face? I set sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, and it shall not pass over it; it will be stirred up but shall not prevail, and its waves shall roar, yet shall not pass over it.

But to this people there came a heart that will not listen and will not obey, and they turned aside and went away.

And they did not say in their heart, Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives us early and latter rain in its season, at the time of the fulfilling of the ordinance of harvest, and he kept it for us.

Your lawless deeds have turned these things aside, and your sins have withheld the good things from you.

For among my people ungodly men were found, and they set snares to destroy men, and they were catching them.

As a set snare is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they became great and grew rich.

And they transgressed judgment; they did not judge the cause of the orphan, and the cause of the widow they did not judge.

Shall I not visit for these things, says the Lord, or shall not my soul take vengeance on such a nation?

Astonishment and horrible things have happened in the land:

The prophets prophesy unjust things, and the priests applauded with their hands, and my people loved it so. And what will you do at what comes after these things?