Jeremiah 5:7-17

7 How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

8 They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for they are not the LORD's.

11 For the house of Yisra'el and the house of Yehudah have dealt very treacherously against me, says the LORD.

12 They have denied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

13 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

14 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God Tzva'ot,, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Yisra'el, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

17 They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, [which] your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

Jeremiah 5:7-17 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.