The Lord Proclaims Judgment

Jeremiah 5

¹⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
Because they ₁ have spoken this word,
I am now making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.
¹⁵ I am going to bring upon you
a nation from far away, O house of Israel,
+qsays the Lord.
It is an enduring nation,
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
nor can you understand what they say.
¹⁶ Their quiver is like an open tomb;
all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ 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;
they shall destroy with the sword
your fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸ But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you. ¹⁹ And when your people say, "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, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours."

²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob,
proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but do not see,
who have ears, but do not hear.
²² Do you not fear me? says the Lord;
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail,
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³ 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,
who gives the rain in its season,
the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed for the harvest."
²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these away,
and your sins have deprived you of good.
²⁶ For scoundrels are found among my people;
they take over the goods of others.
Like fowlers they set a trap; ₂
they catch human beings.
²⁷ Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
²⁸ they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no limits in deeds of wickedness;
they do not judge with justice
the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper,
and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
²⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things?
+qsays the Lord,
and shall I not bring retribution
on a nation such as this?

³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing
has happened in the land:
³¹ the prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule as the prophets direct; ₃
my people love to have it so,
but what will you do when the end comes?