Jeremiah 5

God sends Jeremiah to search Jerusalem for even one honest person, and none can be found, from the poor to the powerful. Their false worship, adultery, lies, and greed, and the false prophets who soothe them, bring the warning of invasion. Even so, God promises he will not make a complete end of his people.

Jeremiah 5:1

God tells Jeremiah to comb the whole city for a single person who acts justly and seeks truth. If one is found, God will pardon the city. It shows how ready he is to forgive, and how deep the corruption has gone.

BSA: streets (“public areas, marketplaces”): The search covers everyday public life, where people’s real character shows. truth (“faithfulness”): God is looking for dependable loyalty, not just correct words.

Hebrew: אֱמוּנָה (emunah, H530) — “truth, faithfulness, steadiness.” The word describes something firm that can be leaned on. God is looking for people who are reliable in how they live.

See also: Genesis 18:32.

Jeremiah 5:2

The people still use God’s holy name in their oaths, saying ‘As surely as the LORD lives.’ But they do not mean it. Religious speech with a dishonest heart is empty, and God sees through it.

BSA: falsely (“with false intentions”): The fault lies in the heart behind the oath, not only in the words.

See also: Exodus 20:7.

Jeremiah 5:3

Jeremiah turns to God in prayer. God looks for truth, yet his judgments had not softened the people. They would not feel their pain or learn from it. Their stubbornness is like stone.

BSA: discipline (“correction, instruction”): God’s blows were meant to teach, but they refused the lesson.

Hebrew: מוּסָר (musar, H4148) — “discipline, correction, instruction.” The word is used of a parent’s training of a child. God’s strokes were meant as loving correction, not mere punishment.

See also: Isaiah 1:5.

Jeremiah 5:4-5

Jeremiah first excuses the poor: they are uneducated and do not know God’s ways. He then looks to the leaders, who should know better. But they had cast off God’s rule just as completely, like oxen that break their yoke and snap their chains.

BSA: powerful (“great men, leaders”): Those with education and influence had the most reason to know God’s law, and the most blame for rejecting it.

Hebrew: עֹל (ol, H5923) — “yoke.” A yoke joins an ox to its work under its master. Breaking it pictures throwing off God’s rule over their lives.

See also: Jeremiah 2:20.

Jeremiah 5:6

Judgment is pictured as wild beasts: a lion, a wolf, and a leopard, each ready to attack. No one will be safe outside the towns. The cause is plain: their rebellion has been repeated, and their turning away has been constant.

BSA: unfaithful deeds (“backslidings”): This is a long habit of turning back from God, not one slip.

Hebrew: מְשׁוּבוֹתֵיהֶם (meshuvoteihem, H4878) — “their turnings back, backslidings.” It comes from the word ’to turn.’ They turned away from God again and again, and they were now turning away from the very call to turn back.

See also: Hosea 13:7-8.

Jeremiah 5:7

God asks how he could possibly pardon them. He had provided for them richly, and they answered by swearing by idols and by unfaithfulness, both spiritual and sexual. Blessings received and then forgotten make the guilt heavier.

BSA: forsaken (“abandoned”): They left him as someone walks away from a relationship.

Jeremiah 5:8-9

The people are like well-fed stallions in heat, chasing other men’s wives without shame. God’s question expects the answer yes: should he not act? A holy God cannot overlook such behavior forever.

BSA: punish (“visit, oversee”): God personally steps in to examine and deal with what is going on.

Jeremiah 5:10-11

Judgment is pictured as an enemy stripping a vineyard. The vines are Israel and Judah, who have been utterly unfaithful. Yet God says ‘do not finish them off,’ showing mercy even in the middle of the warning. Branches that are not his will be cut away.

BSA: finish them off (“make a full end”): Even as God judges, he sets a limit so his people are not wiped out.

See also: Isaiah 5:1-7.

Jeremiah 5:12-13

The people have lied about God, saying he will do nothing and no disaster will come. The prophets who say this are only wind. God’s word is not in them, so their own empty predictions will fall back on them.

BSA: wind (“a blast of air”): These prophets have a lot of noise but nothing solid to say.

Hebrew: רוּחַ (ruach, H7307) — “wind, breath, spirit.” The same word can mean God’s Spirit. These prophets have only empty breath, not the Spirit’s word.

See also: Micah 3:11.

Jeremiah 5:14

God tells Jeremiah that his own words, spoken in the prophet’s mouth, will be like fire. The people who scoffed at warnings will be the wood. The word they brushed aside is the very thing that will bring judgment.

BSA: fire (“refining presence”): God’s word, spoken by his prophet, does a searching and purifying work as well as a consuming one.

See also: Jeremiah 23:29.

Jeremiah 5:15-17

God will bring a distant, ancient nation whose language they cannot understand. Its armies are fierce, with quivers ’like open graves.’ They will eat the harvest, the children, the flocks, and the vines, and break down the cities in which the people trusted. Their security is shown to be false.

BSA: trust (“have confidence, put your faith”): They had put their faith in walls instead of in God.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:49.

Jeremiah 5:18-19

Even in the coming disaster God makes a promise: he will not make a full end of them. When people ask why this has happened, Jeremiah is to answer plainly. They gave themselves to foreign gods at home, so they will serve foreigners abroad.

BSA: full end (“complete destruction”): God’s judgment on his people always stops short of total ruin because of his covenant.

Hebrew: כָלָה (kalah, H3615) — “complete end, destruction.” The word means a total finish. The promise is that, however hard the discipline, a remnant will remain.

See also: Jeremiah 30:11; Deuteronomy 28:47-48.

Jeremiah 5:20-21

The message must be announced to all Jacob and Judah. God calls the people foolish and senseless. They have eyes and ears, but they will not see or hear. The problem is not lack of ability but refusal to take it in.

BSA: senseless (“without heart”): In the Bible the heart is the center of thinking and choosing, so they lack the inner will to understand.

Hebrew: אֵין לֵב (ein lev, H369) — “without heart.” The Hebrew literally says ’no heart.’ The heart is where a person thinks and decides, so this is a failure of the whole inner person.

See also: Isaiah 6:9-10.

Jeremiah 5:22

God asks why they do not fear him. He set a boundary of sand for the mighty sea, and the waves roar against it in vain. If the sea obeys a limit set by sand, how can his people ignore his commands?

BSA: fear (“tremble with reverence”): This fear is awe before a great and holy God, not cowering terror.

See also: Job 38:10-11.

Jeremiah 5:23-24

Unlike the sea, the people have stubborn, rebellious hearts and walk away. They never say inwardly, ‘Let us fear the LORD.’ Yet the rains and the harvest each year come from him. They enjoy his gifts and ignore the Giver.

BSA: hearts (“the seat of feelings, will, and intellect”): Rebellion here is a matter of the whole inner person, not only of outward acts.

Hebrew: יוֹרֶה (yoreh, H3138) — “early rain.” This is the autumn rain that softens the dry ground for planting. Its coming on time was a regular reminder of God’s care.

See also: Deuteronomy 11:14.

Jeremiah 5:25

Their own sins are the reason good things have been held back. God does not lack generosity. Wrongdoing creates a barrier that blocks his blessings.

BSA: bounty (“good things”): God’s good gifts were there for the taking; sin kept them out of reach.

Jeremiah 5:26-27

Among God’s own people are wicked men who lie in wait like bird catchers, trapping others. Their houses are as full of cheating as a cage is full of birds. Dishonesty has made them rich and powerful.

BSA: deceit (“trickery, cheating”): Their wealth was built on fraud against others.

Jeremiah 5:28

The rich have grown fat and shiny and have outdone others in evil. They refuse to take up the case of orphans or defend the rights of the poor. God cares especially for the weak, and this neglect is serious in his eyes.

BSA: defended (“judged, vindicated”): Defending the needy means actually giving them justice in court, not just feeling sorry for them.

See also: Isaiah 1:23.

Jeremiah 5:29

God repeats his question from verse 9. After all this, should he not punish? The repetition shows his judgment is not hasty or arbitrary. It follows a long record of injustice.

BSA: avenge (“take revenge, punish”): God acts as a righteous judge who defends what is right, not as a petty person getting even.

Jeremiah 5:30-31

Something horrible has happened in the land. The prophets lie, the priests rule by their own authority, and the people love it that way. They enjoy leaders who do not challenge them. God asks, ‘What will you do in the end?’ for the end is coming.

BSA: love (“with great affection”): The people did not merely put up with false leaders; they cherished them.

Hebrew: שַׁמָּה (shammah, H8047) — “horror, appalling thing.” The word is used for things that leave people staring in shock. God says the shock is that his people prefer lies.

See also: 2 Timothy 4:3.