ASV
Jeremiah 5
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 doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her.
2And though they say, As Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely.
3O Jehovah, do not thine eyes look upon truth? thou hast stricken them, but they were 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.
4Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:
5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their backslidings are increased.
7How can I pardon thee? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.
8They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
9Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah's.
11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith Jehovah.
12They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the 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.
15Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
17And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, [which] thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall beat down thy fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword.
18But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.
19And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not:
22Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: will ye not tremble at my presence, who 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.
23But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good from you.
26For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
27As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.
28They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land:
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?
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Adultery: General Scriptures Concerning Jeremiah 5:7, 8
“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes. / They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Afflictions and Adversities of the Wicked: Frequently Harden Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
Afflictions and Adversities: Obduracy In Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
Agriculture or Farming: The Providence of God to be Acknowledged in the Produce of Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
Agriculture: God to be Acknowledged In Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
Armies: Devastation Occasioned By Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”
Armies: Often Went on Foreign Service Jeremiah 5:15
Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.
Arrows: Carried in a Quiver Jeremiah 5:16
Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.
Autumn Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
Babylon: Remarkable For: Antiquity Jeremiah 5:15
Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.
Babylon: Remarkable For: Military Power Jeremiah 5:16
Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.
Backsliders: Backsliding of Israel Jeremiah 5:1–31
“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city. / Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are swearing falsely.” / O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.
Backsliding: Guilt and Consequences of Jeremiah 5:6
Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.
Battlements: On the Walls Jeremiah 5:10
Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not finish them off. Strip off her branches, for they do not belong to the LORD.
Birds: Cages of Jeremiah 5:1
“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.
Birds: Confinement of, in Cages Alluded To Jeremiah 5:27
Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
Blessing: Temporal, from God Jeremiah 5:24
They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’
Blindness: Spiritual Jeremiah 5:4, 5, 21
Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God. / I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains. / “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
Cage for Birds, Unclean Jeremiah 5:27
Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.
Character of the Unrenewed Heart: Rebellious Jeremiah 5:23
But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone away.
Christian Minister: False and Corrupt Jeremiah 5:13, 14, 30, 31
The prophets are but wind, for the word is not in them. So let their own predictions befall them.” / Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: “Because you have spoken this word, I will make My words a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes. / A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.
Confidence: False Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”
Deceit: Evil of Leads to Pride and Oppression Jeremiah 5:27, 28
Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. / They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.
Deceit: Leads: To Pride and Oppression Jeremiah 5:27, 28
Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. / They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.
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Jeremiah 5:1-31 The Cause of the Judgments to Be Inflicted Is the Universal
Corruption of the People.
Jeremiah 5:1 Verse 1
a man--As the pious Josiah, Baruch, and Zephaniah lived in Jerusalem at that time, Jeremiah must here mean the mass of the people, the king, his counsellors, the false prophets, and the priests, as distinguished from the faithful few, whom God had openly separated from the reprobate people; among the latter not even one just person was to be found (Isa 9:16) [Calvin]; the godly, moreover, were forbidden to intercede for them (Jer 7:16; compare Ge 18:23, &c.; Ps 12:1; Eze 22:30). see ... know--look ... ascertain. judgment--justice, righteousness. pardon it--rather, her.
Jeremiah 5:2 Verse 2
(Tit 1:16). swear falsely--not a judicial oath; but their profession of the worship of Jehovah is insincere (Jer 5:7; Jer 4:2). The reformation under Josiah was merely superficial in the case of the majority.
Jeremiah 5:3 Verse 3
eyes upon the truth--(De 32:4; 2Ch 16:9). "Truth" is in contrast with "swear falsely" (Jer 5:2). The false-professing Jews could expect nothing but judgments from the God of truth. stricken ... not grieved--(Jer 2:30; Isa 1:5; 9:13). refused ... correction--(Jer 7:28; Zep 3:2).
Jeremiah 5:4 Verse 4
poor--rather, "the poor." He supposes for the moment that this utter depravity is confined to the uninstructed poor, and that he would find a different state of things in the higher ranks: but there he finds unbridled profligacy.
Jeremiah 5:5 Verse 5
they have known--rather, "they must know." The prophet supposes it as probable, considering their position. but these--I found the very reverse to be the case. burst ... bonds--set God's law at defiance (Ps 2:3).
Jeremiah 5:6 Verse 6
lion ... wolf ... leopard--the strongest, the most ravenous, and the swiftest, respectively, of beasts: illustrating the formidable character of the Babylonians. of the evenings--Others not so well translate, of the deserts. The plural means that it goes forth every evening to seek its prey (Ps 104:20; Hab 1:8; Zep 3:3). leopard ... watch ... cities--(Ho 13:7). It shall lie in wait about their cities.
Jeremiah 5:7 Verse 7
It would not be consistent with God's holiness to let such wickedness pass unpunished. sworn by--(Jer 5:2; Jer 4:2); that is, worshipped. no gods--(De 32:21). fed ... to the full--so the Keri (Hebrew Margin) reads. God's bountifulness is contrasted with their apostasy (De 32:15). Prosperity, the gift of God, designed to lead men to Him, often produces the opposite effect. The Hebrew Chetib (text) reads: "I bound them (to Me) by oath," namely, in the marriage covenant, sealed at Sinai between God and Israel; in contrast to which stands their "adultery"; the antithesis favors this. adultery ... harlots' houses--spiritually: idolatry in temples of idols; but literal prostitution is also included, being frequently part of idol-worship: for example, in the worship of the Babylonian Mylitta.
Jeremiah 5:8 Verse 8
in the morning--(Isa 5:11). "Rising early in the morning" is a phrase for unceasing eagerness in any pursuit; such was the Jews' avidity after idol-worship. Maurer translates from a different Hebrew root, "continually wander to and fro," inflamed with lust (Jer 2:23). But English Version is simpler (compare Jer 13:27; Eze 22:11).
Jeremiah 5:9 Verse 9
(Jer 5:29; Jer 9:9; 44:22).
Jeremiah 5:10 Verse 10
Abrupt apostrophe to the Babylonians, to take Jerusalem, but not to destroy the nation utterly (see on Jer 4:27). battlements--rather, tendrils [Maurer]: the state being compared to a vine (Jer 12:10), the stem of which was to be spared, while the tendrils (the chief men) were to be removed.
Jeremiah 5:11 Verse 11
(Jer 3:20).
Jeremiah 5:12 Verse 12
belied--denied. It is not he--rather, "(Jehovah) is not He," that is, the true and only God (Jer 14:22; De 32:39; Isa 43:10, 13). By their idolatry they virtually denied Him. Or, referring to what follows, and to Jer 5:9, "(Jehovah) is not," namely, about to be the punisher of our sins (Jer 14:13; Isa 28:15).
Jeremiah 5:13 Verse 13
Continuation of the unbelieving language of the Jews. the prophets--who prophesy punishment coming on us. the word--the Holy Spirit, who speaks through true prophets, is not in them [Maurer]. Or else, "There is no word (divine communication) in them" (Ho 1:2) [Rosenmuller]. thus, &c.--Their ill-omened prophecies shall fall on themselves.
Jeremiah 5:14 Verse 14
ye ... thy ... this people--He turns away from addressing the people to the prophet; implying that He puts them to a distance from Him, and only communicates with them through His prophet (Jer 5:19). fire ... wood--Thy denunciations of judgments shall be fulfilled and shall consume them as fire does wood. In Jer 23:29 it is the penetrating energy of fire which is the point of comparison.
Jeremiah 5:15 Verse 15
(Jer 1:15; 6:22). Alluding to De 28:49, &c. Israel--that is, Judah. mighty--from an Arabic root, "enduring." The fourfold repetition of "nation" heightens the force. ancient--The Chaldeans came originally from the Carduchian and Armenian mountains north of Mesopotamia, whence they immigrated into Babylonia; like all mountaineers, they were brave and hardy (see on Isa 23:13). language ... knowest not--Isa 36:11 shows that Aramaic was not understood by the "multitude," but only by the educated classes [Maurer]. Henderson refers it to the original language of the Babylonians, which, he thinks, they brought with them from their native hills, akin to the Persic, not to the Aramaic, or any other Semitic tongue, the parent of the modern Kurd.
Jeremiah 5:16 Verse 16
open sepulchre--(Compare Ps 5:9). Their quiver is all-devouring, as the grave opened to receive the dead: as many as are the arrows, so many are the deaths.
Jeremiah 5:17 Verse 17
(Le 26:16).
Jeremiah 5:18 Verse 18
Not even in those days of judgments, will God utterly exterminate His people. I will not make a full end with you--(Jer 5:10; Jer 4:27).
Jeremiah 5:19 Verse 19
Retribution in kind. As ye have forsaken Me (Jer 2:13), so shall ye be forsaken by Me. As ye have served strange (foreign) gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers (foreigners) in a land not yours. Compare the similar retribution in De 28:47, 48.
Jeremiah 5:21 Verse 21
eyes ... ears, and--Translate, "and yet" (compare De 29:4; Isa 6:9). Having powers of perception, they did not use them: still they were responsible for the exercise of them.
Jeremiah 5:22 Verse 22
sand--Though made up of particles easily shifting about, I render it sufficient to curb the violence of the sea. Such is your monstrous perversity, that the raging, senseless sea sooner obeys Me, than ye do who profess to be intelligent [Calvin], (Job 26:10; 38:10, 11; Pr 8:29; Re 15:4).
Jeremiah 5:23 Verse 23
(Jer 6:28).
Jeremiah 5:24 Verse 24
rain ... former ... latter--The "former" falls from the middle of October to the beginning of December. The "latter," or spring rain in Palestine, falls before harvest in March and April, and is essential for ripening the crops (De 11:14; Joe 2:23). weeks of ... harvest--the seven weeks between passover and pentecost, beginning on the sixteenth of Nisan (De 16:9). By God's special providence no rain fell in Palestine during the harvest weeks, so that harvest work went on without interruption (see Ge 8:22).
Jeremiah 5:25 Verse 25
National guilt had caused the suspension of these national mercies mentioned in Jer 5:24 (compare Jer 3:3).
Jeremiah 5:26 Verse 26
(Pr 1:11, 17, 18; Hab 1:15). as he that setteth snares--rather, "as fowlers crouch" [Maurer]. trap--literally, "destruction": the instrument of destruction. catch men--not as Peter, to save (Lu 5:10), but to destroy men.
Jeremiah 5:27 Verse 27
full of deceit--full of treasures got by deceit. rich--(Ps 73:12, 18-20).
Jeremiah 5:28 Verse 28
shine--the effect of fatness on the skin (De 32:15). They live a life of self-indulgence. overpass ... the wicked--exceed even the Gentiles in wickedness (Jer 2:33; Eze 5:6, 7). judge not ... fatherless--(Isa 1:23). yet ... prosper--(Jer 12:1).
Jeremiah 5:29 Verse 29
(Jer 5:9; Mal 3:5).
Jeremiah 5:30 Verse 30
(Jer 23:14; Ho 6:10).
Jeremiah 5:31 Verse 31
bear rule by their means--literally, "according to their hands," that is, under their guidance (1Ch 25:3). As a sample of the priests lending themselves to the deceits of the false prophets, to gain influence over the people, see Jer 29:24-32. love to have it so--(Mic 2:11). end thereof--the fatal issue of this sinful course when divine judgments shall come.