Jeremiah 5:14-31

The Lord Proclaims Judgment

14 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: "Because you have spoken this word, behold, ¹I am making my words in your mouth ²a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.

15 ³Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the LORD. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, ⁴nor can you understand what they say.

16 ⁵Their quiver is like ⁶an open tomb; they are all mighty warriors.

17 ⁷They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your ⁸fortified cities in which you trust they shall beat down with the sword."

18 "But even in those days, declares the LORD, ⁹I will not make a full end of you.

19 And when your people say, ¹⁰'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, ¹¹so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.'"

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah:

21 "Hear this, ¹²O foolish and senseless people, ¹³who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

22 ¹⁴Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand ¹⁵as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though ¹⁶they roar, they cannot pass over it.

23 ¹⁷But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.

24 They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, ¹⁸who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us ¹⁹the weeks appointed for the harvest.'

25 ²⁰Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you.

26 For wicked men are found among my people; ²¹they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.^{[a] 22}They set a trap; they catch men.

27 Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich;

28 ²³they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; ²⁴they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

29 ²⁵Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"

30 An appalling and ²⁶horrible thing has happened in the land:

31 ²⁷the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; ²⁸my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 5:14-31 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 5

This chapter contains a further account of the destruction of the Jews by the Chaldeans, and the causes of it, the sins of the people, as want of justice and truth; being so corrupt, that a just and faithful man was not to be found among them; could there, the city would have been pardoned for his sake, Jer 5:1, their swearing falsely by the name of the Lord, Jer 5:2, their incorrigibleness by chastisements, which was the case not only of the lower, but higher rank of people, Jer 5:3-5, wherefore the enemy, who for his cruelty is compared to a lion, a wolf, and a leopard, is threatened to be let in among them, Jer 5:6, then other sins are mentioned as the cause of it, as idolatry and adultery, Jer 5:7-9 hence the enemy has a commission to scale their walls, take away their battlements, though not to make a full end, the Lord disowning them for his, Jer 5:10, because of their perfidy against him, their belying of him, contradicting what he had said, and despising the word sent by his prophets, Jer 5:11-13, wherefore it is threatened, that his word like fire should devour them; and that a distant, mighty, and ancient nation, of a foreign speech, should invade them; who, like an open sepulchre, would devour them, and eat up the increase of their fields, vineyards, flocks, and herds, and impoverish their cities, yet not make a full end of them, Jer 5:14-18, and in just retaliation should they serve strangers in a foreign country, who had served strange gods in their own, Jer 5:19 then a declaration is published, and an expostulation is made with them, who are represented as foolish, ignorant, and blind, that they would fear the Lord; which is pressed by arguments taken from the power of God, in restraining the sea, which had no effect upon them; and from the goodness of God, in giving the former and latter rain, and the appointed weeks of the harvest, which their sins turned away and withheld from them, Jer 5:20-25, and then other sins are mentioned as the cause of God's visiting them in a way of vengeance, as the defrauding of men in trade, and the oppression of the fatherless and the poor in judgment; and false prophesying, to the advantage of the priests, and the king of the people, Jer 5:26-31.

Cross References

• 1. [Jeremiah 1:9, 10]
• 2. [Obadiah 18; Zechariah 12:6; Revelation 11:5]
• 3. Jeremiah 34:21, 22; Deuteronomy 28:49; [Jeremiah 1:15; Amos 6:14]
• 4. Isaiah 33:19
• 5. See Isaiah 5:28
• 6. Psalms 5:9
• 7. Leviticus 26:16; Deut. 28:31, 33, 51
• 8. [Hosea 8:14]
• 9. [See ver. 10 above]
• 10. Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 16:10, 11; Jeremiah 22:8, 9; Deuteronomy 29:24, 25; 1 Kings 9:8, 9
• 11. Deuteronomy 4:27, 28; Deuteronomy 28:47, 48, 68
• 12. Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 6:9
• 13. [Matthew 13:14]
• 14. Jeremiah 10:7
• 15. Job 26:10; Job 38:10, 11; Psalms 104:9
• 16. Jeremiah 51:55; [Psalms 46:3]
• 17. Jeremiah 6:28
• 18. Jeremiah 14:22; Deuteronomy 11:14; Job 5:10; Psalms 147:8; Matthew 5:45
• 19. Genesis 8:22
• 20. Jeremiah 3:3
• 21. [Proverbs 1:11]
• 22. Psalms 10:9; [Psalms 124:7]
• 23. Deuteronomy 32:15
• 24. [Jeremiah 7:6; Isaiah 1:23; Zechariah 7:10]
• 25. See ver. 9
• 26. Jeremiah 23:14; Hosea 6:10
• 27. Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 14:14, 18; Jeremiah 20:6; Jeremiah 23:21, 25; Jeremiah 27:10, 15; Jeremiah 29:9; Ezekiel 13:6
• 28. [Micah 2:11]

Footnotes

• [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain