The Lord Proclaims Judgment

Jeremiah 5

14 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
"Because you have spoken this word,
behold, y I am making my words in your mouth z a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
 15 a Behold, 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,
b nor can you understand what they say.
 16 c Their quiver is like d an open tomb;
they are all mighty warriors.
 17 e They 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 f fortified cities in which you trust
they shall beat down with the sword."

18 "But even in those days, declares the Lord, u I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, g '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, h so 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, i O foolish and senseless people,
j who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
 22 k Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand l as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though m they roar, they cannot pass over it.
 23 n But 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,
o who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
p the weeks appointed for the harvest.'
 25 q Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have kept good from you.
 26 For wicked men are found among my people;
r they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. 1
s 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 t they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
u they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
 29 v Shall 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 w horrible thing
has happened in the land:
 31 x the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule at their direction;
y my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?

  1. Cross References
    Jeremiah 1:9 - 10
    Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
  2. Cross References
    Obadiah 1:18
    The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.
    Zechariah 12:6
    On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
    Revelation 11:5
    And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.
  3. Cross References
    Jeremiah 34:21 - 22
    And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you.
    Deuteronomy 28:49
    The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.
    Jeremiah 1:15
    For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
    Amos 6:14
    "For behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel," declares the Lord, the God of hosts; "and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of the Arabah."
  4. Cross References
    Isaiah 33:19
    You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
  5. Cross References
    Isaiah 5:28
    Their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
  6. Cross References
    Psalms 5:9
    For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.
  7. Cross References
    Leviticus 26:16
    Then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
    Deuteronomy 28:31
    Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you.
    Deuteronomy 28:33
    A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.
    Deuteronomy 28:51
    It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
  8. Cross References
    Hosea 8:14
    For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.
  9. Cross References
    Jeremiah 5:10
    Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but make not a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not the Lord 's.
  10. Cross References
    Jeremiah 13:22
    And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things come upon me?' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence.
    Jeremiah 16:10 - 11
    "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?'
    Jeremiah 22:8 - 9
    "'And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?"
    Deuteronomy 29:24 - 25
    All the nations will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?
    1 Kings 9:8 - 9
    And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?
  11. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 4:27 - 28
    And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.
    Deuteronomy 28:47 - 48
    Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things.
    Deuteronomy 28:68
    And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
  12. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:6
    Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
    Isaiah 6:9
    And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
  13. Cross References
    Matthew 13:14
    Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.
  14. Cross References
    Jeremiah 10:7
    Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you.
  15. Cross References
    Job 26:10
    He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
    Job 38:10 - 11
    And prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors.
    Psalms 104:9
    You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
  16. Cross References
    Jeremiah 51:55
    For the Lord is laying Babylon waste and stilling her mighty voice. Their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is raised.
    Psalms 46:3
    Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
  17. Cross References
    Jeremiah 6:28
    They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly.
  18. Cross References
    Jeremiah 14:22
    Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.
    Deuteronomy 11:14
    He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
    Job 5:10
    He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields.
    Psalms 147:8
    He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.
    Matthew 5:45
    So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
  19. Cross References
    Genesis 8:22
    While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
  20. Cross References
    Jeremiah 3:3
    Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.
  21. Cross References
    Proverbs 1:11
    If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason.
  22. Cross References
    Psalms 10:9
    He lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
    Psalms 124:7
    We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
  23. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 32:15
    But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
  24. Cross References
    Jeremiah 7:6
    If you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm.
    Isaiah 1:23
    Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.
    Zechariah 7:10
    Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.
  25. Cross References
    Jeremiah 5:9
    Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord ; and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
  26. Cross References
    Jeremiah 23:14
    But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
    Hosea 6:10
    In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
  27. Cross References
    Jeremiah 6:13
    For from the least to the greatest of them, eve...
    Jeremiah 14:14
    And the Lord said to me: "The prophets are prop...
    Jeremiah 14:18
    If I go out into the field, behold, those pierc...
    Jeremiah 20:6
    And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your hou...
    Jeremiah 23:21
    I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I di...
    Jeremiah 23:25
    I have heard what the prophets have said who pr...
    Jeremiah 27:10
    For it is a lie that they are prophesying to yo...
    Jeremiah 27:15
    I have not sent them, declares the Lord, but th...
    Jeremiah 29:9
    For it is a lie that they are prophesying to yo...
    Ezekiel 13:6
    They have seen false visions and lying divinati...
  28. Cross References
    Micah 2:11
    If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, "I will preach to you of wine and strong drink," he would be the preacher for this people!
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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