Judah’s dishonesty and corruption
5
📚“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and look now and understand,
and seek in its wide squares;
if you can find a man,
if there is anyone who acts
with justice and seeks the truth,
I will pardon it.
5:1 In chapter 4 God speaks of the fearful punishment to come on Judah. In this chapter He continues to set forth the reasons why He must send such punishments. The first reason He gives is that there is no honesty, no love of truth whatever in the whole of Jerusalem. Such corrupt conditions whether in Jerusalem or anywhere cry out for God’s punishment.⚜
2 📚For though they say,
‘As the LORD lives’,
they certainly swear falsely”.
3 📚O LORD, are not your eyes
on the truth?
You have struck them,
but they have not grieved;
you have consumed them,
but they have refused
to receive correction.
They have made their faces harder
than a rock;
they have refused to return.
4 📚Therefore I said,
“These are only the poor.
They are foolish, for they do not know
the way of the LORD,
or the justice of their God.
5 📚I will go to the great men,
and will speak to them;
for they have known the way
of the LORD,
and the justice of their God”.
But they had completely broken
the yoke and torn off the bonds.
6 📚Therefore a lion out of the forest
will slay them, and a wolf
from the desert will ruin them,
a leopard will watch over their cities.
Everyone who goes out will be torn
in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
and their backslidings have
increased.
5:3-6 Jeremiah, from his experience with both the people and their leaders, is compelled to agree with God’s judgment.⚜
5:6 Lev 26:22. Here these animals may signify hostile invading nations.⚜
7 📚“How will I pardon you 📖 for this?
Your children have forsaken me,
and sworn by gods who are
not gods 📖.
When I fed them to the full,
then they committed adultery 📖,
and trooped to the houses
of the prostitutes.
8 📚They were like well-fed
lusty stallions;
each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
5:7-8 Again God speaks.⚜
9 📚Will I not give punishment
for these things?
says the LORD.
And will I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?
10 📚“Go up on her walls, and destroy.
But do not make a full end.
Take away her branches,
for they are not the LORD’s.
5:10 Signifies permission to Israel’s enemies to partially destroy her.⚜
11 📚For the house of Israel and
the house of Judah have dealt
very treacherously against me”,
says the LORD.
12 📚“They have lied about the LORD and said:
‘He is saying nothing.
No disaster will come on us,
and we will not see sword or famine.
13 📚And the prophets are but wind,
and the word is not in them.
Thus it will be done to them.’ ”
5:12-13 They lied by denying God’s predictions in their own scriptures (Lev 26:14-39; Deut 28:15-68) and God’s warnings through the prophets. To them Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc were windbags! They foolishly imagined that denying the truth of God’s Word would do away with that Word.⚜
14 📚Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
see, I will make my words in your mouth
a fire, and this people wood,
and it will consume them.
15 📚See, I will bring a nation against you
from afar, O house of Israel”,
says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation,
it is an ancient nation 📖,
a nation whose language
you do not know,
and whose speech you do not
understand.
16 📚Their quiver is like
an open grave;
they are all mighty men.
17 📚And they will eat up your harvest,
and your bread, which your sons
and your daughters should eat.
They will eat up your flocks and your herds.
They will eat up your vines and
your fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
your fortified cities in which
you trust.
18 📚“Nevertheless, in those days”, says the LORD, “I will not make a complete end of you.
19 📚And it will come about that when you say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?’ then you will answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’
5:19 Their asking this question reveals their spiritual blindness and ignorance of God’s Word.⚜
20 “Declare this to the house of Jacob,
and publish it in Judah, saying,
21 📚Now hear this, O foolish and
senseless people,
who have eyes, but do not see,
who have ears, but do not hear:
5:21 If they had not been so senseless they would have known the answer (Deut 29:4; Isa 6:9; 42:20; Ezek 12:2; Matt 13:15).⚜
22 📚Do you not fear me? says the LORD.
Will you not tremble at my presence,
who have placed the sand as
a boundary of the sea by a permanent decree,
so that it cannot cross it?
And though its waves toss themselves,
yet they cannot prevail; though they roar,
yet they cannot cross over it.
5:22 People fear all sorts of things but refuse to fear God Who holds their life and eternal fate in His hands. This is evidence of a kind of madness in the hearts of people, the madness Solomon spoke about in Eccl 9:3. Notes on the fear of God at Gen 20:11; Job 28:28; Ps 34:11-14; 111:10; 130:3-4.⚜
23 📚“But this people have a stubborn
and rebellious heart.
They have revolted and gone.
5:23 Everything in the universe follows the laws God has appointed except human beings, Satan and demons.⚜
24 📚Nor do they say in their heart,
‘Let us now fear the LORD our God
who gives rain,
both the former and the latter,
in its season, who reserves for us
the appointed weeks of the harvest.’
25 📚Your evil deeds have turned away
these things,
and your sins have withheld good things
from you.
26 📚For among my people are found
wicked men.
They lie in wait like one who sets snares;
they set a trap, they catch men.
27 📚As a cage is full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit 📖.
Therefore they have become great
and grown rich.
28 📚They have grown fat; they are sleek.
Yes, they surpass the deeds
of the wicked.
They do not plead the cause,
the cause of the fatherless;
yet they prosper;
and they do not cause the needy 📖
to get justice.
29 📚Will I not punish them
for these things?”
says the LORD.
“Will I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?
5:29 Verse 9.⚜
30 📚“A shocking and horrible thing is happening
in the land:
31 📚The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule on their own
authority,
and my people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?
5:20-31 In this part the Lord fully answers the question of v 19.⚜
5:30-31 Jer 6:13; 2:8. When God Himself says something is horrible and fearful we may be quite sure it is. Prophets telling lies in God’s name and priests ruling arrogantly is bad enough, but it is even worse when God’s people love to have it so. To be satisfied with lies brings any people into terrible danger (2 Thess 2:10).⚜