Jeremiah 5 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 5

Jerusalem Refused to Repent

5:1   Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
  Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
  one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
  that I may pardon her.
2   Though they say, “As the LORD lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
3   O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
  You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
  you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
  They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.
4   Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense;
  for they do not know the way of the LORD,
    the justice of their God.
5   I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
  for they know the way of the LORD,
    the justice of their God.”
  But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.
6   Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
  A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
  because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great.
7   “How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
  When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of whores.
8   They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9   Shall I not punish them for these things?
      declares the LORD;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?
10   “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    but make not a full end;
  strip away her branches,
    for they are not the LORD’s.
11   For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
      declares the LORD.
12   They have spoken falsely of the LORD
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
  no disaster will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
13   The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
  Thus shall it be done to them!’”

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

14   Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts:
  “Because you have spoken this word,
  behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15   Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
      declares the LORD.
  It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
  a nation whose language you do not know,
    nor can you understand what they say.
16   Their quiver is like an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
17   They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
  they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
  your fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

18 “But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20   Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
21   “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
22   Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
    Do you not tremble before me?
  I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
  though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23   But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
24   They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
  who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
  and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25   Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
26   For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.¹
  They set a trap;
    they catch men.
27   Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
  therefore they have become great and rich;
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
  They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
  the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29   Shall I not punish them for these things?
      declares the LORD,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”
30   An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
31   the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
  my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

Footnotes

[1] 5:26 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

Commentary

v1:Jeremiah searches for the godly man, that the Lord might pardon Jerusalem.

v2:As in v30-31 and elsewhere, there was only pretence of religion, pursuing an outward form of words, but no reality. Yet this is what the people wanted.

v3:The unrepentant and stubborn heart; the Lord brought the threatened judgment upon them, but the people refused to listen, and refused to be corrected.

v4:Jeremiah realised the people's ignorance.

v5:Jeremiah went to the leaders, expecting to find some faith and knowledge; if the people did not know the ways of the Lord, perhaps the leaders would.

But the leaders had broken off the yoke of the Lord, cutting off their communication with God. They had done this consistently, leaving no exception.

v6: The result, an attack from the enemy, referring to the Babylonian army. Again the reason for military defeat is clear; their great rebellion, and many backslidings.

v7-9: Judgment was the Lord's only option. The nation had blatantly pursued idols, even though the Lord had provided for them, see also v29. Jeremiah uses an image of adultery to describe their unfaithfulness to the true God.

v10-11: Not only Israel but also Judah; the whole nation had been unfaithful to God. But there were a few people faithful (Is 6.13); there remained a stump, a faithful remnant.

v12-13: They also rejected God's word; the disobedient person necessarily avoids God's word, and refused to apply it to his own life.

The people lied, claiming that God would not judge His own people. They expected deliverance from harm, whether by sword or famine.

Their false prophets would also suffer loss.

v14-17: The coming of a mighty nation to destroy Judah. Their soldiers would bring death and destruction.

But also Jeremiah's own words would go out with power to destroy.

v18: See also v10; not a complete end; the Lord continued His mercy towards Israel, and His faithfulness to His promises.

v19: Judah had to learn that she received her just reward. The specific promise here is that they would be taken to a foreign land. The remnant surviving would carry the hard lessons learned. Yet the testimony to God’s faithfulness remained, in a very few who were removed to a foreign land.

v20-22: Message to foolish people who lack understanding, compare Is 6.10;

they have eyes, but do not see;
they have ears, but do not hear;
they do not fear the Lord.

The people have become like the false gods they have worshipped; Ps 115.1-8.

v23: A defiant and rebellious heart.

v24: Their refusal to repent, as they clung to their sins. They wilfully forgot the Lord's goodness in providing for His people.

v25: Their iniquities and sins were the reason for the coming judgment. The regularity of autumn and spring rains, the weeks of harvest, were lost because of their rebellion.

v26-29: "Among my people;" such wrongs should not be found among the people of God. Selfishness, deceit, greed, injustice, are listed here. Their devised sinful schemes, they prospered at cost to others, they neglected the poor and weak.

v30-31: Unjust leadership, although loved by the people.

But what will you do in the end? Their lifestyle could not continue; their selfishness and scheming must come to an end. Their only option was repentance, otherwise there would be judgment.