Open English Translation JER Chapter 5

5 Roam around Yerushalem’s streets and look and observe,

≈ and search around its plazas.

If you can find one person there who values justice and strives to be faithful,

then I’ll forgive the city.

2 Even when they make an oath in Yahweh’s name,

it’ll still be a lie.

3 Yahweh, don’t you look for honesty?

You struck them but they don’t even react.

You brought them to an end, but they refuse to accept correction.

They make their faces harder than rock and refuse to change.

4 Then I thought that maybe they’re just poor people?

They act foolishly because they’re not educated about Yahweh’s way

or what their god requires of them?

5 So I’ll go to the leaders and speak to them,

because they know Yahweh’s way and what their god requires.

However, all of them have broken out from under his yoke,

and torn off the chains.

6 Because of that, a lion from a thicket will attack them.

≈ A wolf from the wilderness will devastate them.

≈ A leopard lies in wait outside their cities—

→ everyone who goes out from them will be torn to pieces

because their disobedience is extensive

≈ and their disloyalty is substantial.

7 How could I forgive you for that?

Your children have abandoned me and have made oaths by things that are not gods.

I satisfied them, but they committed adultery

and ritually cut themselves[fn] at the prostitute’s house.

8 They were well-fed, lusty horses,

each man neighing at his neighbour’s wife.

9 Yahweh asks:

Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?

≈ Shouldn’t I avenge myself on a nation like that?

10 Go along the rows in the vineyard and destroy them,

but don’t completely destroy them—

break off their shoots because they don’t belong to Yahweh.

11 No, Yisrael’s and Yehudah’s people had indeed dealt treacherously with me.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

12 They’ve denied Yahweh and said:

He doesn’t exist and nothing bad will happen us,

and we’ll never experience war or famine.

13 The prophets are full of air and don’t have any message.

So let what they say, happen to them.

14 So Commander-in-chief Yahweh says this:

Because you’ve spoken those words,

I’ll put my messages in your mouth as a fire

and this people group wil be the wood that it consumes.

15 Listen you Israelis to Yahweh’s declaration:

I’m about to bring to you all a nation from far away—

it’s an enduring nation that’s been around for a long time.

You won’t know their language or understand what they say.

16 Its quiver is like an open tomb.

All of them are warriors.

17 It will consume your grain and your food.

They’ll devour your sons and daughters, and your flocks and your cattle.

They’ll strip your grapevines and your fig trees.

With their swords, they’ll shatter your fortified cities that you were trusting in.

18 But Yahweh says:

Even in those days, I won’t completely destroy you all.

19 When the people ask why Yahweh’s doing that, you’ll tell them:

You rejected me and served foreign gods in your own country,

so you’ll all serve strangers in a land that doesn’t belong to you.

20 Declare this to Yakov’s (Jacob’s) descendants,

and proclaim it in Yehudah (Judah):

21 Please listen to this, you foolish, heartless people.

They have eyes but do not see,

and they have ears, but do not hear.[ref]

22 Yahweh declares:

Should you all respect and strive to obey me,

and shouldn’t you tremble in front of me?

It was me who designated the sand as the boundary for the ocean—

it’s a permanent line and the sea doesn’t go past it.

The waters surge but get no further,

and the waves roar, but can’t get past it.[ref]

23 But this group of people has a stubborn and rebellious heart.

They’ve turned aside and gone away.

24 They don’t say to themselves:

Please, let’s strive to obey our god Yahweh—

the one who gives the autumn and spring rains at the appropriate time.

He decides on the harvest weeks for us.

25 Your disobedience has diverted those things,

≈ and your sins have withheld goodness from you all

26 because there are wicked influencers among my people.

They lie in wait like a bird-catcher.

≈ They set a trap and catch people.

27 Their homes are full of deceit like a cage full of birds.

→ so that’s how they’ve become rich and powerful.

28 They’ve become fat and slick.

They also disobey by doing evil.

They don’t plead the cause of those who are fatherless,

≈ and they’re successful, yet they haven’t insisted on justice for the poor.

29 Yahweh says:

Why shouldn’t I punish them for all that behaviour?

≈ Why shouldn’t I avenge myself on a nation like this one?

30 Something horrible and shocking has happened in the country:

31 The prophets prophesy with lies,

and the priests rule by their own authority,

and my people love it this way,

but what will you all do when it comes to its end?