Jeremiah 5:4

4 And I -- I said, `Surely these [are] poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.

Jeremiah 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 5:4

Then I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish
The prophet, observing that reproofs and corrections in providence had no effect upon the people, he thought within himself that surely the reason must be, because these people are poor, and in low circumstances in the world, and are so busy in their worldly employments to get bread for their families, that they were not at leisure to attend unto divine things; nor of capacity to receive instruction and correction by providences; therefore it is they were so foolish, stupid, and infatuated: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God;
either the way which God takes in the salvation of the sons of men, and in justifying of them, which is revealed in his word; or that which he prescribes them to walk in, in his law, even the way of truth and righteousness, and for failure of which he judges and condemns them; but of these things they were ignorant; see ( John 7:48 John 7:49 ) , not that this is observed in excuse for them, but in order to introduce what follows; and to show that this depravity, stupidity, and ignorance, obtained among all sort of people, high and low, rich and poor.

Jeremiah 5:4 In-Context

2 And if they say, `Jehovah liveth,' Surely to a falsehood they swear.

3 Jehovah, Thine eyes, are they not on stedfastness? Thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved, Thou hast consumed them, They have refused to receive instruction, They made their faces harder than a rock, They have refused to turn back.

4 And I -- I said, `Surely these [are] poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.

5 I get me to the great, and I speak with them, For they have known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.' Surely they together have broken the yoke, They have drawn away the bands.

6 Therefore smitten them hath a lion out of the forest, A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them, A leopard is watching over their cities, Every one who is going out of them is torn, For many have been their transgressions, Mighty have been their backslidings.