Major Prophets · Chapter 5 of 52

Jeremiah 5

God sends Jeremiah searching Jerusalem's streets for even one person who does justice and seeks truth, promising to pardon the city for that one's sake, but none is found. Great and small alike have broken the yoke. Because they deny that judgment will come, God summons a distant nation to consume them. Their prosperity is built on deceit, and the people love their false prophets.

What happens in Jeremiah 5

The LORD challenges Jeremiah to run through Jerusalem's streets and squares to find a single person who executes justice and seeks truth, promising to pardon the city if one is found. Jeremiah first excuses the poor as ignorant of God's way, then turns to the leaders, only to find they too have broken the yoke. Because they swear falsely and refuse correction, making their faces harder than rock, God asks how he can pardon them. He announces a mighty, ancient nation from afar whose language they will not understand, which will devour their harvest, herds, and fortified cities.

The people deny that the LORD will act, saying no sword or famine will come, so God makes his words in Jeremiah's mouth like fire. He indicts a people who do not fear him though he set the sea's bounds, whose wealth grows through trapping the vulnerable, whose prophets prophesy falsely while the people love it so.

Jeremiah 5 in context

This chapter continues Jeremiah's indictment of Judah before the exile, portraying a society corrupt from top to bottom. The search for one righteous person recalls Abraham's plea over Sodom in Genesis 18. The invading nation is Babylon.

Jeremiah exposes a culture of false security, where popular prophets soothe the people with promises of peace and the wealthy prosper by exploiting the poor, and where even God's restraint of the sea fails to inspire fear.

Main themes of Jeremiah 5

Jeremiah 5 (KJV)

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 executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. 2And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. 3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have 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. 4Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. 5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. 7How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. 8They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife. 9Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: 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 battlements; for they are not the LORD’s. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. 12They have belied the LORD, 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 the LORD 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 the LORD: 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 as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 17And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. 18Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. 19And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 20Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: 22Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which 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 the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. 25Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; 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 waxen rich. 28They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30A wonderful and horrible thing is committed 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?

Verses to carry from Jeremiah 5

“Run 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 executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.”Jeremiah 5:1

“But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.”Jeremiah 5:23

“The 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?”Jeremiah 5:31

Reflection

It is sobering that a city could not yield one just person, and more sobering that people loved the lies told them. Ask honestly which voices you welcome, the ones that flatter or the ones that tell you the truth. Do you love comfortable deception more than costly honesty? Christ is the righteous one; ask him to make you truthful too.

A prayer from Jeremiah 5