The big picture
God sends a search through Jerusalem, Judah's capital, for someone who acts fairly and seeks truth. Jeremiah, his prophet, tests poor and wealthy alike and finds shared refusal. Judah is the southern part of Israel, God's people. Full provision has been answered with unfaithfulness, and warnings are dismissed as empty wind. A distant nation will strip the land, though God will preserve a remnant. The chapter ends with rich predators, false prophets, complicit priests, and a public willing to keep the corrupt arrangement.
In this chapter
- The Search Finds Refusal Among Poor and Great Jeremiah 5:1-6
God offers pardon if the city yields someone who practises justice and seeks truth.
- Full Provision Produces Betrayal and Denial Jeremiah 5:7-13
God asks how he can pardon people who forsake him for false gods.
- A Distant Nation Consumes the Land Jeremiah 5:14-19
Because the warning has been dismissed, God makes his words in the prophet's mouth like fire against wood.
- The Sea Keeps a Boundary the People Reject Jeremiah 5:20-25
Foolish people have eyes and ears but do not use them.
- Wealthy Predators Are Supported by Willing Hearers Jeremiah 5:26-31
Wicked people within the nation set traps for human beings.
Central truth
God finds lies at every rank and sends foreign judgement on a people whose leaders and hearers both prefer the same wrong order.
Scripture beside the summary
Jeremiah · King James Version · 31Jeremiah 5:1-6
The Search Finds Refusal Among Poor and Great
God offers pardon if the city yields someone who practises justice and seeks truth. People swear by his living name, but their oaths are false. Jeremiah says God looks for truth, yet the people refuse correction and harden themselves. He first supposes poverty and ignorance explain it. Then he visits the great, expecting them to know better. They too have broken the bond of obedience. Lion, wolf, and leopard images announce deadly danger around the towns. Rank changes neither the refusal nor the judgement brought by their many departures from God.
In everyday life
A municipal reviewer checks falsified claims from small applicants, then turns to senior contractors expecting better records. Their books hold the same lies on a larger scale. Rank has not made them honest. God's threatened judgement hangs over a whole city; the reviewer checks civic records.
Notice
Jeremiah 5:5 The move to the great tests the prophet's first explanation. Their knowledge does not produce obedience, so the failure cannot be blamed on poverty or lack of teaching alone.
Jeremiah 5:1-6
King James Version1Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
2And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Jeremiah 5:7-13
Full Provision Produces Betrayal and Denial
God asks how he can pardon people who forsake him for false gods. After being fed fully, they pursue adultery and their neighbours' wives, pictured as well-fed horses driven by appetite. He announces judgement on both branches of his people, yet limits the destruction from becoming total. They have denied that God will bring war or famine. Prophetic warnings are dismissed as wind with no divine word behind them. The people betray both their neighbours and God. He gave food and kept speaking to them. They used the plenty for wrong and refused the words.
In everyday life
A well-paid employee uses the security of a trusted position to pursue secret affairs and ignores repeated warnings that the harm is becoming public. He treats every concern as empty talk because his comfortable routine still continues. Provision has become an excuse for denial. Jeremiah announces judgement on a nation; the employee faces the harm of personal betrayal.
Notice
Jeremiah 5:12 The people deny the coming sword and famine rather than merely asking when they will arrive. Their claim attempts to remove God's judgement from consideration altogether.
Jeremiah 5:7-13
King James Version7How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
9Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.
11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
12They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
Jeremiah 5:14-19
A Distant Nation Consumes the Land
Because the warning has been dismissed, God makes his words in the prophet's mouth like fire against wood. A strong, ancient nation comes from far away, speaking a language the people cannot understand. Its arrows are compared with an open grave. It consumes harvests, food, herds, vines, and the resources meant for children. Fortified towns cannot preserve their wealth. God again says the people will not be entirely destroyed. When they ask why, the answer matches their choice: serving foreign gods at home leads to serving foreigners in a land not their own.
In everyday life
A forced-migration support worker lists the livelihoods a family has lost: fields, animals, stored food, and the house they thought secure. She then helps them understand instructions in an unfamiliar language. Loss reaches the whole means of living. God calls foreign rule an answer to idolatry; the worker assists those already displaced.
Notice
Jeremiah 5:19 The answer repeats the idea of serving foreigners in a changed place. The judgement exposes the foreign loyalty chosen at home by making its cost bodily and public.
Jeremiah 5:14-19
King James Version14Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
17And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
18Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.
19And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Jeremiah 5:20-25
The Sea Keeps a Boundary the People Reject
Foolish people have eyes and ears but do not use them. God calls them to listen. He sets sand as the sea's boundary; roaring waves do not overthrow his decree. Yet his people have a rebellious heart and turn away. They do not acknowledge the giver of rain in its proper seasons or the weeks appointed for harvest. Their own sins have held back these good gifts. The sea stays within God's bounds. The people do not. They refuse to honour the giver of rain and food. The loss of those gifts answers that refusal.
In everyday life
A tide-station observer records the sea's regular limits while the neighbouring farm keeps breaking the agreed drainage rules. Water follows its course, but the deliberate human decisions damage the crop. Knowing the pattern has not produced respect for it. God can withhold the rain itself; the observer measures water without ruling it.
Notice
Jeremiah 5:24 Rain and harvest time are named as gifts to be acknowledged. The missing reverence concerns ordinary provision, not only spectacular acts that would interrupt daily life.
Jeremiah 5:20-25
King James Version20Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
Jeremiah 5:26-31
Wealthy Predators Are Supported by Willing Hearers
Wicked people within the nation set traps for human beings. Their houses fill with deceit as cages fill with caught birds. They grow rich and sleek while refusing fair hearings to orphans and the needy. God asks whether such conduct can pass without repayment. A final horror joins false prophecy, priests ruling in cooperation with it, and people who prefer the arrangement. The leaders are not alone in this wrong. The people want it to stay this way. God asks what they will do when it all comes to an end.
In everyday life
A renters’ adviser finds that a landlord's traps work because agents, inspectors, and satisfied investors all protect the false paperwork. The poorest tenants cannot get a hearing while others enjoy the returns. The scheme has willing supporters beyond its founder. Jeremiah exposes a nation's religious and public corruption before God's judgement.
Notice
Jeremiah 5:31 The people love the false arrangement, so blame does not stop with prophets and priests. Public preference helps keep the system in place until its end arrives.
Jeremiah 5:26-31
King James Version26For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
27As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
28They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Jeremiah 5:1 begins with “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that…”
Where the chapter turns
Jeremiah 5:19 forms a natural hinge: “And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have…”
The final note
Jeremiah 5:31 leaves the reader with “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, nation, full, people, house, judgment help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- quiver
- A container holding arrows for an archer.
- sepulchre
- A tomb or burial place for the dead.
- backslidings
- Turning away again and again from a faithful course.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
