Chapter Five

1–9. The prophet’s complaint about the corruption of the Judean people. 10–19. God’s judgment. 20–31. A new, more intense complaint from the prophet.

Jer 5:1-9. The punishment announced against Judah and Jerusalem in the preceding chapter is fully deserved. In Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, corruption of morals reigns. There are no honest people for whom the Lord could have spared the city.

Jeremiah 5:1. Go through the streets of Jerusalem, and see and look around, and search in its squares whether you can find a person, whether there is anyone who practices justice and seeks truth. I would spare Jerusalem. God offers to find in Jerusalem even one righteous and honest person – He would in such a case forgive the city (cf. Gen 18:23-32). “Seeking truth.” Truth (emunah) – as a human quality combines within itself faithfulness to God, honesty toward people, and truthfulness in relation to oneself.

Jeremiah 5:2. Although they say “As the Lord lives,” yet they swear falsely. Jeremiah 5:3. O Lord, are not Your eyes upon truth? You have struck them, but they felt no pain; You have consumed them, but they refused to receive instruction; they have made their faces harder than stone; they would not return. “They swear falsely,” that is, they themselves attach no significance to their oath in the name of Jehovah. – “Are not Your eyes upon truth?” that is, but You, O Lord, value only truth!

Jeremiah 5:4. And I myself said “These are perhaps poor people; they are foolish because they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God; Jeremiah 5:5. I will go to the great and speak with them, for they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God. But they also have all broken the yoke and torn off the bonds. The prophet expresses his personal impressions from observing the life of the capital city. It turns out that even the great people regard the law of Jehovah as a heavy yoke from which they must necessarily free themselves. The common people perhaps do not know this law at all.

Jeremiah 5:6. Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them, a wolf from the wilderness shall devastate them, a leopard watches over their cities; whoever goes out from them will be torn to pieces, for their transgressions are multiplied and their apostasies are strengthened. The enemies of Judah are depicted in the form of wild beasts.

Jeremiah 5:7. How can I forgive you for this? Your sons have abandoned Me and swear by those who are not gods. I have fed them, yet they commit adultery and go in throngs to the houses of harlots. Jeremiah 5:8. They are well-fed horses; each neighs after another’s wife. Swearing not by gods testified to their renunciation of the true God. “I have fed them.” Even Moses predicted that the Hebrews, once satisfied with all the products of Palestine, would abandon God, their benefactor (Deut 32:13-15). Jeremiah also understands the adultery that the Judeans commit as their falling away from Jehovah and the worship of idols, which in fact was usually connected with debauchery. – “The house of harlots” – this is a pagan sanctuary.

Jeremiah 5:9. Shall I not punish them for this? says the Lord; and shall not My soul take vengeance on a people such as this? “My soul” means I. – Vengeance, when applied to God, means His most righteous judgment over people. Jer 5:10-19. For their sins the Judean people must undoubtedly suffer punishment. The people do not allow the thought of this, they mock the prophets who are predicting God’s judgment upon them, and for this they will be subdued by a mighty northern nation.

Jeremiah 5:10. Go up on her walls and destroy them, but not completely; demolish her battlements, because they are not of the Lord; Jeremiah 5:11. “For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with Me,” says the Lord. The prophet, on behalf of Jehovah, addresses the enemies of Judah with an invitation to go up on the walls of Jerusalem and destroy them, destroying their proudly rising battlements. However – the prophet notes – this destruction will not put an end to the existence of the people (but not completely). Some interpreters (Cornill) understand by walls here the walls of a vineyard, and by battlements – the branches of a grapevine. According to this interpretation, the prophet speaks here of the Hebrew people, who was also depicted by the prophet Isaiah (Isa 5:2) under the image of a vineyard enclosed by walls.

Jeremiah 5:12. They have lied about the Lord and said, “It is not He, and disaster will not come upon us, and we will see neither sword nor famine. The Judeans do not entirely deny the existence of God. They only do not believe that He speaks to them through His prophets and that from Him comes punishment and reward (cf. Zeph 1:12).

Jeremiah 5:13. And the prophets will become wind, and the word [of the Lord] is not in them; over them themselves let it be thus. Jeremiah probably had in mind, besides himself, also other true prophets who were predicting the ruin of Jerusalem (cf. Jer 26:20 and following). Since these predictions have not yet been fulfilled up to now, the Judeans mock them.

Jeremiah 5:14. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts: “Because you speak such words, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and this fire will consume them. Through Jeremiah, whom the Judeans mocked above all others, the Lord will soon accomplish His judgment upon Jerusalem. By the word of the prophet, as if by the action of fire, all sinners in Jerusalem will be destroyed – of course, by the Babylonians who will appear in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 5:15. “Behold, I am bringing upon you, O house of Israel, a nation from afar,” says the Lord, “a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor will you understand what they say. Jeremiah 5:16. Their quiver is like an open grave; all of them are mighty men. The Babylonians are described here approximately with the same features as those given by Moses (Deut 28:49-52). “An ancient nation” – existing from the earliest times – “Their quiver is like an open grave” – the prophet perhaps wants to say by this something about the opposite and terrible impression which a large bag of deadly arrows on the back of a Babylonian warrior produces.

Jeremiah 5:17. And they will eat your harvest and your bread; they will eat your sons and your daughters; they will eat your sheep and your oxen; they will eat your vines and your figs; they will destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust. “They will eat your sons” – of course, in the figurative sense: they will destroy, annihilate.

Jeremiah 5:18. But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not utterly destroy you. Jeremiah 5:19. And if you say, “Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?”, then you shall answer: “Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve foreign gods in a land that is not yours. The Lord still will not completely destroy the sinful Judean people. If He sends calamities upon them, these calamities are fully deserved punishments. Jer 5:20-31. Explaining why Jehovah is angry with the Judeans, the prophet points to their unwillingness to see the greatness of the Divine omnipotence and love. They do not fear God and hurt people – this is the cause of their misfortunes.

Jeremiah 5:20. “Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, “The house of Jacob” – the same as Judah.

Jeremiah 5:21. “Hear this, O foolish people and senseless ones, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Cf. Isa 6:10.

Jeremiah 5:22. “Do you not fear Me?” says the Lord. “Do you not tremble before Me? I have set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal limit which it cannot cross; and though its waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. The prophet points to the sea as a miracle of the wisdom and omnipotence of Jehovah – the sea does not flood the shores beyond the limit set for the tide, even though the sand would allow it to roll its waves further.

Jeremiah 5:23. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned back and gone away; Jeremiah 5:24. And they have not said in their hearts: “Let us fear the Lord our God, Who gives us the early and the latter rain in its season, Who preserves for us the weeks appointed for harvest. The Judeans are extremely stubborn and will not turn to Jehovah. – “Preserves for us the weeks” – that is, protects the days of gathering the grain from rains, namely the weeks between Passover and Pentecost, during which there was usually harvest in Palestine.

Jeremiah 5:25. Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have deprived you of what is good. Jeremiah 5:26. “For among My people are found wicked men; they crouch as bird catchers do, they set traps and catch men. Jeremiah 5:27. As a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deception; therefore they have become great and rich, Jeremiah 5:28. They have become fat and sleek; they have also surpassed the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause of the fatherless, nor do they defend the rights of the poor. In recent times, according to the prophet’s thought, the Judeans by their sins have caused the order mentioned above in natural phenomena to change. During the gathering of fruits, consequently, rain would often fall, harming the harvest...

Jeremiah 5:29. Shall I not punish them for this?” says the Lord; “and shall not My soul take vengeance on a people such as this? A repetition of the thought contained in verse 9.

Jeremiah 5:30. “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in this land: Jeremiah 5:31. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority, and My people love it. But what will you do at the end of it? In addition to what has been said about the transgressions of the Israelite people, the prophet points to the close alliance which the priests have concluded with the false prophets (cf. Jer 29:24-26). Jeremiah is particularly grieved by the fact that the people themselves gladly listen to the false assurances of the priests and prophets, who were assuring them that everything in their state was going well. The people were walking on a false path and showed not the slightest desire to turn from it – this is what broke Jeremiah’s heart!